What do four adult entertainers, 138 engineers, a handful of pilots and a pastor have in common? They all think they have hot tips about an alleged financial fraud.
They are also among the more than 6,500 people who have offered confidential information under the whistleblower program of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency set up the program in mid-2011 with hopes of eliciting dirt on corporate wrongdoers. It offers a bounty of up to 30% of penalties for any monetary sanctions the agency extracts that exceed $1 million.
The potential windfall has attracted tips from at least 68 countries. Nearly 3,600 of the whistleblowers listed a job title, according to information obtained by The Wall Street Journal through a Freedom of Information Act request.
