"A Tip A Day"

According to Joe Palazzolo's recent post in Corruption Currents (a Wall Street Journal blog), "a person familiar with the matter" said the SEC "has been receiving at least one tip a day about potential foreign bribery violations" pursuant to Dodd-Frank's new whistleblower provisions.

Whether those tips turn into enforcement actions will be the question.

As I noted in this prior post, my guess is that the new whistleblower provisions will have a negligible impact on FCPA enforcement.

Speaking generally on Dodd-Frank's whistleblower provisions (i.e., not just in terms of the FCPA) SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro had this to say (see here) in September 30th testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs:

"Staff in the Division of Enforcement, with assistance from other divisions and offices, is actively working to draft implementing regulations for the whistleblower program. Pending the issuance of these regulations (due no later than 270 days after the date of enactment of the Act), the staff has been and will continue to be able to receive whistleblower complaints. Also, information for potential whistleblowers has been posted on our website. Already, since the passage of the Act, we have seen a slight uptick in the number of tips and complaints received, and, more importantly, an uptick in the quality of complaints."

As noted in Schapiro's testimony, "the first report to Congress on the whistleblower program will be provided on October 30, 2010."

For more on Dodd-Frank's whistleblower provisions see here.