On June 9, 2016, the SEC issued a stunning $17 million award to a former employee, whose “detailed tip” provided original information to SEC enforcement staff that “substantially advanced their investigation” into the...more
On May 31, 2016, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued an order upholding the SEC Claims Review Staff’s (“CRS”) Preliminary Determination denying a claim for a whistleblower award in connection with the...more
Over the past week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced two multi-million dollar awards to whistleblowers who provided the SEC with information in ongoing investigations.
On May 13, 2016, the...more
On November 16, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Whistleblower (“OWB”) released its fifth Annual Report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program to Congress, which details information on OWB’s...more
In response to the disagreement amongst courts regarding the scope of Dodd-Frank’s employment retaliation protections, on August 4, 2015, the SEC issued an “interpretive rule” clarifying that individuals who have not reported...more
On May 25, 2015, the Wall Street Journal published an article reporting that tipsters have found it difficult to collect financial awards from the SEC after filing whistleblower claims....more
We have seen a number of substantial whistleblower awards make headlines this year, but a recent article on nytimes.com discusses the potential downsides of government-sponsored bounty programs: rewarding whistleblowers by...more
As federal agencies dole out record-breaking awards to tipsters (such as the SEC’s recent $30 million award), whistleblower programs remain a topic of public interest. Earlier this month, The New York Times published an...more
On November 17, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Whistleblower (“OWB”) released its fourth Annual Report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program to Congress, which details information on OWB’s...more
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Obama administration will seek to remove the $1.6 million cap on rewards to whistleblowers who provide evidence of criminal conduct by financial executives under the 1989 Financial...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided that a whistleblower who did not “voluntarily” provide information to the SEC was nonetheless eligible to receive a monetary award of $400,000. The whistleblower’s...more
As recently reported by Ed Benson of Law 360, on July 4th, 2014, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or “Commission”) issued a final order that denied a whistleblower award claim on the $18 million...more
As reported by The Washington Post, on April 4, 2014, the IRS issued its “Fiscal Year 2013 Report to the Congress on the Use of Section 7623” revealing that it paid whistleblowers $53 million in 2013. The agency said that it...more
On November 15, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of the Whistleblower (OWB) released its third Annual Report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program to Congress, which details information on OWB’s...more
The New York County Lawyers Association Committee on Professional Ethics released Formal Opinion 746 on October 7, in which the Committee considered whether New York lawyers can ethically collect bounties for submitting...more