WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2021) Legislation to shore up a depleted fund to pay whistleblower rewards to commodity traders who report wrongdoing was introduced in the US Senate by lawmakers from both parties, Senator Chuck Grassley said on Thursday.
"The CFTC [Commodity Futures Trading Commission] whistleblower program has become far more successful than Congress imagined when we set it up back in 2010. The risk of a cash shortage is so great, the commission recently told my office it's temporarily paused review of some cases that could wipe out the Customer Protection Fund used to pay whistleblowers," Grassley said in a press release.
The legislation is sponsored by Republican Senators Grassley and Joni Earnst and Democrat Senators Maggie Hassan and Tammy Baldwin, the release said.
The CFTC operates a Customer Protection Fund, established by Congress in 2010, to hold funds that are used to reward whistleblowers for their disclosures. Under current law, the Customer Protection Fund is capped at $100 million, and any fines collected after the account reaches the cap are remitted to the Treasury's general fund, the release added.
In recent years, the increasing size and quantity of fines stemming from successful whistleblower disclosures have led to larger reward disbursements, which risk depleting the fund before it can be replenished, according to the release.
The legislation addresses the shortfall by raising the Consumer Protection Fund limit to $150 million, the release said.
