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Morrison & Foerster LLP

Top 5 SEC Enforcement Developments for January 2025

On January 17, 2025, a few days before the presidential inauguration, the SEC reported a record-breaking first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (October through December 2024) with 200 total enforcement actions, including 118...more

Proskauer Rose LLP

Top 10 Whistleblowing and Retaliation Events of 2024

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Following our annual tradition — which started over a decade ago — we are analyzing the year's 10 most significant whistleblower and retaliation events. As you'll see, in 2024, actions taken by a range of courts and...more

Morgan Lewis

Securities Enforcement Roundup – September 2024

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In this issue of our monthly Securities Enforcement Roundup, we highlight top securities enforcement developments and cases from September 2024. In September 2024 (the last month of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s...more

BakerHostetler

7 More US Attorneys’ Offices Issue Whistleblower Non-Prosecution Pilot Programs

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There was a flurry of DOJ whistleblower program activity over the last two weeks as the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY Program), District of New Jersey (DNJ Program), Southern District of...more

BCLP

SEC Again Cracks Down on Companies That Restrict Whistleblowers

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As discussed in our December 15, 2023 client alert, the SEC has waged an aggressive effort to enforce alleged violations of the whistleblower protection rule.  On September 9, 2024, the SEC announced settled charges resulting...more

A&O Shearman

CFTC Resolves First Action for Impeding Whistleblowers Over Objections of Two Commissioners

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On June 17, 2024, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “the Commission”) issued a groundbreaking order against an energy, metals, and minerals commodity trading company (the "Company”) registered in Singapore....more

BakerHostetler

Employers Beware: Broad Confidentiality and Severance Clauses May Violate Whistleblower Protection Laws

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Employers should check their confidentiality and severance agreements for a common oversight that, for some, is becoming a costly error. Recent enforcement activity by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Rule...more

Cooley LLP

SEC Announces FY23 Enforcement Results –Record-Breaking Whistleblower Awards, Focus on Individual Accountability, Self-Reporting,...

Cooley LLP on

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced its enforcement results for fiscal year 2023, which reported a total of 784 enforcement actions, up 3% from FY22. This includes 501 original (stand-alone)...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

SEC Fines Private Employer for Language in Employee Separation Agreements That Restricted Whistleblower Awards

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently settled charges alleging that a company’s employee separation agreements restricted former employees from receiving monetary awards for reporting securities law...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

SEC Increases Scrutiny of Whistleblower Protections

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Summary - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently announced settlements with a number of companies whose separation agreements or internal policies the SEC viewed as impeding employees’ participation in the...more

Seward & Kissel LLP

Employment Law Alert: Recent SEC Fines for Failure to Provide Whistleblower Protections

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Rule 21F-17 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Rule 21F-17”), adopted under Dodd-Frank, prohibits employers from “tak[ing] any action to impede an individual from communication directly with [SEC staff] about a possible...more

Epstein Becker & Green

SEC Levies a Six Figure Fine Against a Private Company for Language in Its Separation Agreements, Continuing the Aggressive...

Epstein Becker & Green on

The Security and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) continues to aggressively enforce its whistleblower program under the Biden Administration. As we have reported, the SEC has cracked down on employers’ agreements and procedures...more

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

SEC’s $279 million whistleblower award is largest-ever

On May 5, the SEC announced the Commission’s largest-ever award—nearly $279 million—awarded to a whistleblower for providing information and assistance leading to the successful enforcement of SEC and related actions. The SEC...more

A&O Shearman

Recent SEC enforcement relating to workplace misconduct

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Only a few months into the new year and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun to wade into new waters with enforcement efforts focused on disclosure issues without traditional links to securities...more

A&O Shearman

SEC Announces Year-End Enforcement Results, Emphasizing Record-Setting Penalty Awards

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On November 15, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released its summary of enforcement actions for the 2022 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2022. The SEC announced that it filed 760 enforcement actions,...more

Stinson - Corporate & Securities Law Blog

SEC Fires Another Warning Shot on Confidentiality Agreements that Violate Whistleblower Provisions

The SEC brought an enforcement action against The Brink’s Company for using confidentiality agreements that the SEC alleged violated Exchange Act Rule 21F-17. That rule prohibits any person from taking any action to impede an...more

A&O Shearman

SEC Commissioner’s Dissent Highlights Challenges in Responding to Whistleblowers

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On Tuesday, April 12, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined David Hansen, the former Chief Information Officer of NS8, Inc., a Las Vegas-based fraud detection and prevention software firm, approximately...more

Jones Day

SEC Announces Proposed Amendments to Whistleblower Program Rules

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The proposed amendments to the rules governing the whistleblower program, if adopted, would reverse prior amendments and provide further and significant financial incentives for whistleblowers to report potential violations...more

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Gensler-Led SEC Demonstrates Continued Support for Whistleblowers - Capital Markets Compass | Issue 1

On August 5, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced interim procedures effectively nullifying amendments to the SEC's whistleblower program adopted less than a year ago under former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton....more

Proskauer - Corporate Defense and Disputes

Over $1 Billion Whistleblower Awards Paid to Date by the SEC

Last week, the SEC announced accumulated awards of over $1 billion paid to 207 whistleblowers since its first award in 2012.  Over $500 million was awarded in fiscal year 2021 alone. The SEC crossed the billion-dollar...more

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer

SEC Whistleblower Protection Rule Not Restricted to Employee Whistleblowers

On July 21, in S.E.C. v. Collector’s Coffee, Inc. et al.,[1] a New York federal court held that a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) whistleblower protection rule prohibiting actions to impede the...more

Jones Day

Recent SEC Enforcement Action Stresses Importance of Not Impeding Whistleblower Communications with Regulators

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The Situation: The SEC has brought another in a growing list of whistleblower cases critical of entities for potentially attempting to impede an individual from communicating with the agency. In July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall...more

Jones Day

SEC Issues Largest-Ever Award of $114 Million to Individual Whistleblower

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The highest award in the history of the SEC whistleblower program is issued to an employee who repeatedly reported misconduct internally before alerting the SEC. On October 22, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

A Review of Recent Whistleblower Developments - October 2020

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SEC Whistleblower Program Rules Change - On September 23, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the adoption of a final rule in Release 34-89963 that changes several aspects of its whistleblower...more

Proskauer - Whistleblower Defense

SDNY: Directors Not Liable For Whistleblower Claims Under SOX

On December 9, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that, as a matter of law, directors cannot be held liable under the anti-retaliation provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Zornoza v....more

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