A statue is seen next to the logo of Germany's Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany.

Eric Ben-Artzi, a whistleblower who exposed Deutsche Bank's false accounting, has declined the Securities and Exchange Commission's multi-million dollar reward, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

Ben Artizi rejected his share of a $16.5 million payout in protest of the SEC's failure to discipline executives of Deutsche Bank.

"This goes beyond the typical revolving-door story," the former Deutsche risk officer wrote in an opinion article for the Financial Times. "In this case, top SEC lawyers had held senior posts at the bank, moving in and out of top positions at the SEC even as the investigations into malfeasance at Deutsche Bank were ongoing."

The newspaper reported that Ben-Artizi was unable to refuse parts of the reward that his ex-wife, lawyer and outside experts claimed.

Read the Financial Times story here.