SEC Whistleblower Blog
Compliance Officer Receives SEC Whistleblower Award
April 23, 2015
A whistleblower who provided information to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will receive a financial whistleblower award of between $1.4 million and $1.6 million, according to a press release issued yesterday by the SEC. The Commission announced it will present the whistleblower award to an anonymous...
SEC Orders Halt to Agreements Impeding Whistleblower Reports
April 21, 2015
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced earlier this month that it intends take action against companies that use confidentiality agreements to stifle whistleblowers’ ability to report wrongdoing to government authorities. The SEC accompanied its announcement with an order instituting cease and desist...
SEC Creates Incentives for Companies to Self-Report FCPA Violations
March 16, 2015
The effectiveness of foreign bribery whistleblowers was lauded last week by an official from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as the agency, along with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), explained the benefits of companies self-reporting violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). ...
SEC Issues Award to Corporate Officer Whistleblower
March 3, 2015
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Whistleblower Office announced yesterday that it would pay a whistleblower award of between $475,000 and $575,000 to a former corporate officer who reported fraud that he or she learned of through another employee reporting the misconduct internally. Although information...
SEC Orders Goodyear to Pay Hefty Fine for FCPA Violations
February 26, 2015
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently sanctioned Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), imposing a penalty of $16.2 million on the company as a result of bribes paid to foreign officials by Goodyear subsidiaries in Kenya and Angola. According to the SEC’s...
Recent Criticisms of Whistleblower Reward Programs Miss the Mark
February 12, 2015
An opinion editorial by former corporate attorney Steven Solomon, published in the New York Times in late December, criticized what he called the “perverse incentives” that the U.S. government’s whistleblower reward programs create for “bad people” who decide to become whistleblowers. Solomon argues that the whistleblower-...
GAP Legal Director Tom Devine Praises Katz Banks Kumin's SEC Whistleblower Practice Guide
January 16, 2015
David Marshall’s SEC Whistleblower Practice Guide was given a glowing review earlier this week by the Tom Devine, the Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project (“GAP”), who described the Guide as “the definitive guide to the [SEC] whistleblower bounty program.” The SEC Whistleblower Guide, which is available on...
Foreign Bribes Subject Texas Aircraft Maintenance Company to Huge Fines
December 15, 2014
Foreign bribery whistleblowers will be encouraged by news that a company providing aircraft engine maintenance services has admitted to violating U.S. foreign bribery law and agreed to pay a $14 million fine. According to a statement issued by the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday, December 10, 2014, the company, Dallas...
Third Circuit Compels Arbitration for Dodd-Frank Whistleblower
December 9, 2014
Whistleblowers seeking protection from the anti-retaliation provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act suffered a setback on December 8, 2014, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the Dodd-Frank Act’s anti-arbitration provision did not apply to whistleblower retaliation claims brought under the Dodd-Frank Act....
CFTC Whistleblowers Buoyed By Encouraging Annual Report
December 3, 2014
Whistleblowers in the commodity futures industry received encouraging news last month when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “Commission”) issued its Annual Report. The CFTC was created in 1974 to oversee U.S. derivatives markets, such as commodity futures, options, and swaps. In its Annual Report, the CFTC...
