Whistleblowing Policy

A whistleblower policy encourages staff to come forward with credible information on illegal practices or violations of adopted policies in the organisation, specifies that the organisation will protect the individual from retaliation, and identifies those staff or board members or outside parties to whom such information can be reported.

1. Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that:

2. Scope

This policy applies to all staff who have reasonable grounds to believe that an incident of workplace malpractice or mismanagement has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur within the firm.

This policy applies to all Deribit staff, including contractors, agency workers and temporary workers.

3. Definition

For the purpose of this policy, Deribit defines malpractice as:

4. Responsibilities

The Board of Directors is ultimately responsible for the adoption of a Whistleblowing Policy within the firm.

Any questions on the interpretation of this policy or questions about things that are not explicitly covered in this procedure should be directed to the Head of Compliance, who will give binding guidance on the interpretation and application of this procedure.

Compliance is responsible for owning, maintaining and keeping the firm’s Whistleblowing Policy. 

5. Procedure

Deribit’s primary aim is to prevent workplace malpractice from occurring in the first place. Should this happen, it’s the firm’s objective to prevent it from recurring. If appropriate, every effort will be made to resolve the situation on an informal basis in the first instance. If this is not possible, the firm will take formal action to investigate and take whatever steps are necessary.

5.1 First step

If a staff member has a concern about a workplace malpractice, he/she should initially discuss it with his/her line manager, who will usually be in the position to help. 

The line manager will attempt to resolve the matter as promptly as is reasonably practical.

If the staff member is unable to approach his/her line manager for whatever reason and in these circumstances he/she should raise the concern directly with the Whistleblowing Officer, Maciek Bednarski, who also acts as the firm's legal counsel. His email address and telephone number are known within the organization.

The Whistleblowing Officer will either deal with the matter or designate an appropriate Executive Committee representative. In each case, an investigation file must be opened. In the case of an oral report, the Whistleblowing Officer should prepare a written summary. The investigation file will document all relevant facts, including Entities involved, times and dates.

Staff members should be aware that their concerns will, as far as reasonably possible, be dealt with in confidence. However, there may be circumstances where it will not be practical for the firm to pursue a complaint or to deal with an alleged wrongdoer without the identity of the complainant becoming known and this is something that the staff member must recognise when raising their concerns.

The person responsible for dealing with the concern will usually arrange a meeting with the staff member raising the concern to discuss the issue in person. However, the staff member may be asked to set out his/her concerns in writing in advance of the meeting.

The concerns will be discussed in full at the meeting and the person responsible for dealing with the complaint will decide if any further action needs to be taken and, if so, what the appropriate action will be. This may include requiring the person responsible for raising a concern to:

5.3 Third step

If the concern that was raised is found to be valid, the firm may take one or more of the following steps. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list:

Staff members that have raised a concern will, unless circumstances do not permit this, be told what action the firm has decided to take and they must treat any such information with the strictest confidence.

5.4 External disclosure

If, after having followed the procedural steps set out above, the staff member that raised the concern remains genuinely and reasonably dissatisfied with the outcome of the procedure, he/she may raise the concern, on a confidential basis with the firm’s regulator. He/she must inform the CEO of the legal entity he/she is employed with of this at least 7 days before taking such action. 

Most jurisdictions recognise that in some circumstances it may be appropriate for the staff member to report his/her concerns to an external body. Deribit strongly encourages staff members to seek advice before reporting a concern to anyone externally.

Whistleblower concerns usually relate to the conduct of the firm’s staff, but sometimes they may be related to the actions of a third party, such as a client, supplier or service provider. In some circumstances, the law will protect the staff member if the matter is raised with the third party directly. However, Deribit encourages staff to report such concerns first internally, and/or to seek advice if they decide to report to anyone externally to ensure that such disclosure would not result in litigation risk or a breach of the UAE Penal Code. They should contact their line manager or one of the individuals set out in paragraph 6.2 for guidance.

5.5 Protection from victimisation

Provided that the staff member raising the concern has reasonable grounds for believing their concerns to be valid (even if they turn out to be mistaken), the disclosure was made in good faith, and they have complied in full and in the spirit of this policy and the procedural steps outlined above, the following will apply:

The firm will not subject the staff member who has raised a concern under this policy, to any harassment, victimisation or disciplinary action. As far as possible, any supporting evidence relating to the concerts raised will be kept secure at all times.

Staff may not threaten or retaliate against whistleblowers in any way. Any staff member involved in such conduct may be subject to disciplinary measures.

Any person who believes that they have suffered such treatment should inform the Whistleblowing Officer.

5.6 Disclosure outside this Whistleblowing Policy

If at any time it is discovered that staff members have raised a concern falsely, maliciously, vexatiously, in bad faith or with a view to personal gain, they may be subject to the firm’s disciplinary procedure, including, in appropriate circumstances, dismissal.

6. Record keeping

Deribit must retain any communication and documents it obtains in respect of any whistleblowing report or investigation for a minimum of eight years from the date when the matter is closed. 

The Whistleblowing Officer will maintain and, where needed, update the Whistleblowing Register.

This policy must be retained for a minimum of eight years after it has been superseded by an updated version.