Since 2007, top officials from federal and state agencies and many of the country’s experts in whistleblower cases have gathered in Atlanta to discuss and debate anti-fraud efforts at the Whistleblower Law Symposium. Today I was excited to chair our Whistleblower Law Symposium once again, as these experts explored the…
The SEC announced today its first SEC Whistleblower award to a former company officer. The award of a half-million dollars was for “original, high-quality information about a securities fraud,” which resulted in an SEC enforcement action with sanctions of more than $1 million. Typically, corporate officers, directors and other corporate…
Yesterday’s record award to an SEC whistleblower has far-reaching consequences because the SEC made clear it will reward foreign citizens living abroad who meet its criteria for a whistleblower award. This decision rejects any suggestion that the SEC Whistleblower Program’s reach ends at the nation’s borders. The SEC recognized that…
Today the SEC Office of the Whistleblower announced the largest-ever award to an SEC whistleblower: $30 million to a whistleblower living abroad. The size of the award reflects the SEC’s seriousness about utilizing whistleblowers’ information to expose major securities violations. The SEC described this as “ongoing fraud that would have…
“Government shutdown” month (October 2013) has brought encouraging news from the SEC–including some good news you might not realize. On October 1, the SEC announced its first SEC whistleblower award of more than $1 million. The Commission’s Office of the Whistleblowerer led by Sean McKessy awarded more than $14 million…
In January, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) lost to the SEC the first director of the new CFTC Whistleblower Office, Vincente Martinez. CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has announced that he has recruited from the SEC Enforcement Division Christopher Ehrman to lead the CFTC Whistleblower Office’s efforts to attract whistleblowers…
This week in a rare occurrence, the heads of the IRS and SEC Whistleblower programs and federal and state False Clams Act officials participated in one conference to discuss prosecuting and defending whistleblower cases. Our firm has organized this “Whistleblower Law Symposium” since 2007 to explore developments in the growing…
The SEC Whistleblower Program authorized in 2010’s Dodd-Frank law has greater significance because the SEC and the Justice Department share jurisdiction over Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases. Today, SEC Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer released the “Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices…
This morning’s announcement that the SEC has made its first award to a whistleblower under its new SEC Whistleblower Program established by Dodd-Frank leaves some clues about the message the SEC intends to send. Speed: The SEC wasted no time–the award came barely two years after Dodd-Frank’s passage, and a…
When the SEC debated in 2011 requiring “internal” reporting within companies as a prerequisite to filing an SEC Whistleblower claim under Dodd-Frank, business interests howled that any other rule would “destroy” compliance programs. Never mind that the vast majority of whistleblowers have always raised concerns about illegal conduct internally before…