Could SEC payoffs entice company tipsters to tell all?

A federal plan to reward company insiders and other tipsters for blowing the whistle on corporate fraud has business groups alarmed, according to the Washington Post.

The newspaper reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission is scheduled to vote May 25 on a far-reaching proposal to combat corporate wrongdoing by paying private company employees to expose abuses.

Such SEC bounties could be a powerful incentive to whistleblowers to expose abuses such as the Enron and WorldCom accounting frauds, the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac scandals, and alleged misrepresentations involving toxic mortgages.