A whistleblower reward of $1.9 million will be paid to a whistleblower who provided information to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), the agency announced today. While keeping the details secret, the SEC revealed that the information received resulted…
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Dodd-Frank Act, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, whistleblower attorney, whistleblower reward
In late April, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued its first whistleblower award during the Trump administration, awarding almost $4 million to an individual that the SEC said provided the agency with original information that led to the successful…
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Dodd-Frank Act, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Whistleblower, Whistleblower award
Earlier this week, the SEC announced a more than $20 million whistleblower award “to a whistleblower who promptly came forward with valuable information that enabled the SEC to move quickly and initiate an enforcement action against wrongdoers before they could…
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Dodd-Frank Act, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Whistleblower, Whistleblower award
Late in September, the SEC Office of the Whistleblower brought its second stand-alone whistleblower retaliation enforcement action against International Game Technology (“IGT”) over allegations that the company fired “an employee with several years of positive performance reviews because [the employee]…
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Dodd-Frank Act, Retaliation, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, workplace retaliation
At the end of last month, the SEC announced “the award of more than $22 million to a whistleblower whose detailed tip and extensive assistance helped” the SEC bring to an end a “well-hidden” fraud at Monsanto where the whistleblower…
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Dodd-Frank Act, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Whistleblower award, Whistleblower protection
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has recently reiterated its stance against problematic pretaliation severance agreements that attempt to require outgoing employees to waive their rights to recover a whistleblower bounty or to bring a qui tam action against his…
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In May 2016 alone, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) paid approximately $10 million in whistleblower awards. These frequent and ever-increasing awards should serve as a stern notice to in-house counsel and compliance personnel alike that SEC whistleblower awards may…
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Dodd-Frank Act, Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission
Until recently, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (“CFTC”) Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program had only paid out two whistleblower awards, totaling $530,000 ($290,000 and $240,000, respectively), over the entire life of the program. However, that changed significantly when the CFTC announced…
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CFTC Whistleblower Program, Dodd-Frank Act, IRS, IRS Tax Whistleblower Program, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Whistleblower, Whistleblower award, Whistleblower protection, workplace retaliation
Two distinct themes have emerged from the recent whistleblower awards issued by the SEC Office of the Whistleblower: 1) The SEC’s Whistleblower Office will, if warranted, pay big awards; and 2) The faster a potential whistleblower provides the SEC with…
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A whistleblower is usually someone who works for a company where fraud is suspected; someone with “insider” knowledge of what’s going on within the company. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes the whistleblower is an outsider with expert knowledge…
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Dodd-Frank Act, Government, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Whistleblower, whistleblower attorney, Whistleblower award