securities fraud

CFTC Whistleblower Program Ends the Year with Another Seven-Figure Bounty Award

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On December 19, 2019, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it will award more than $1 million to an individual whose tip helped expose a securities fraud scheme and eventually led to the CFTC filing charges. The individual first provided the information through the employer’s internal compliance program, which the employer submitted to another regulator, and the individual subsequently provided that information directly to the CFTC.  The award is significant because it recognizes that individuals are eligible to receive an award for: (1) being the original source of information the CFTC receives from another regulator; and (2) a tip that leads to evidence of a violation the CFTC ultimately charges, even if the reported conduct itself does not form the basis for those charges. READ MORE →

The Whistle Keeps Blowing: SEC Whistleblower Office Releases Its 2019 Annual Report

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The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower (“OWB”) released its Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Report (the “Report”) to Congress on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program on November 15, 2019. The Report analyzes the tips received over the last twelve months by the OWB, provides additional information about the whistleblower awards to date, and discusses the OWB’s efforts to combat retaliation and other actions that muzzle whistleblowers. To date, the SEC has recovered over $2 billion in total monetary sanctions from its enforcement actions arising from whistleblower tips, including more than $1 billion in disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and interests, and it has or is scheduled to return almost $500 million to harmed investors. READ MORE →