Justices to Skip SEC Whistleblower Awards Over Insurance Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission will avoid Supreme Court scrutiny over its payments to insurance fraud whistleblowers who alleged the agency awarded them a fraction of what they were owed.

The justices on Monday declined to review an August 2024 ruling in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit siding with the SEC over the tipsters, who had argued the agency’s narrow payments would damage the whistleblower program.

Forensic accountant John McPherson and investor John Barr say the information they provided prompted the SEC’s 2012 suit against Texas-based Life Partners Holdings Inc. by exposing that the insurer underestimated ...