January 6, 2012

CFTC Chairman Names Vincente Martinez as Director of Recently Opened Whistleblower Office

Washington, DC – Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Gary Gensler today announced that Vincente Martinez has been hired as the first director of the CFTC’s recently opened Whistleblower Office.

“The CFTC’s Whistleblower Office, which the agency implemented under the Dodd-Frank Act, provides the public an avenue to help catch misconduct in the markets and improve the CFTC’s ability to be an effective cop on the beat,” Chairman Gensler said. “With Vincente’s valuable experience, the CFTC has a very capable hand leading this important office.”

The Whistleblower Office, created by section 748 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), establishes a program under which the Commission may pay awards to individuals who voluntarily provide original information about violations of the Commodity Exchange Act. In order to qualify for an award, the information that individuals provide must lead to a successful Commission enforcement action that results in monetary sanctions exceeding $1,000,000, or a related action.

Mr. Martinez joins the CFTC from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he most recently served as an Assistant Director in the Division of Enforcement. While at the SEC, Mr. Martinez helped to establish and run the SEC’s Office of Market Intelligence, which handles the collection and analysis of tips, complaints and referrals from the public, government agencies and self-regulatory organizations. Prior to joining the SEC, Mr. Martinez spent several years in private practice as a litigator and a corporate transactional attorney in Washington, DC and New York. Mr. Martinez is a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

The Whistleblower Office hereby advises prospective whistleblowers of the following:

• The whistleblower program is governed by the Commission’s final Rules, which prospective whistleblowers should review in order to understand the requirements of the program, including how to submit a tip, how to maintain eligibility, and how to claim an award.
• Questions about the program should be sent to the Whistleblower Office by email to [email protected].
• At this time, whistleblower submissions can only be made by mailing or faxing a Form TCR to:

Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Whistleblower Office
1155 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20581
Fax: (202) 418-5975

• Persons who submitted original information after the Dodd-Frank Act was enacted (July 21, 2010), but before the final Rules became effective (October 24, 2011), must mail or fax a completed Form TCR to the Whistleblower Office no later than February 21, 2012.
• Whistleblowers and others interested in the program should sign up to the Commission’s email subscription service, and subscribe to its RSS feeds, in order to receive Notices of Covered Actions, Award Notices and other news from the Whistleblower Office.

Up-to-date information about the program can also be found on the Commission’s webpage.

Last Updated: January 6, 2012