Author: Young Law Group

SEC Disgorgement Debated in Supreme Court The Securities and Exchange Commission defended its ability to disgorge illegal profits from wrongdoers before the Supreme Court yesterday in Kokesh v. SEC. It was Justice Neil Gorsuch’s second day of oral arguments.  An opinion is expected by the end of the term in July. The case is now...

Barclays Whistleblower Identity Protected The Justice Department is reportedly investigating efforts by Barclays CEO Jes Staley to unmask a Barclays whistleblower who sent two anonymous letters to the bank’s board of directors complaining about the hiring of a mid-level executive. Barclays reportedly asked the U.S. Postal Service for assistance in tracking down the sender of...

False Claims Act Lawsuit Over Elder Care Fraud Because we are a smaller firm, we spend a lot of energy upfront evaluating potential whistleblower cases. The importance of this process was emphasized again by a Fourth Circuit decision last month in United States ex rel. Michaels v. Agape Senior Community, Inc. (4th Cir. Feb. 14, 2017) The...

Insider Trading & Other Schemes Prevalent The former head of enforcement at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) told Reuters that there is a “massive amount of misconduct” in futures, options and swaps markets. This fraud, which includes prohibited market manipulation, insider trading, front-running and Ponzi schemes, goes undetected because of insufficient data mining...

A Win for Internal SEC Whistleblowers On a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the right of internal SEC whistleblowers to sue under the Dodd-Frank Act after they are retaliated against for informing their company of suspected violations of federal securities laws. The circuit split on anti-retaliation protections for internal SEC whistleblowers now consists...

Live Webcast Reviewing SEC Rule 21F-17 Brandon Lauria will speak on enforcement of SEC Rule 21F-17 at a Knowledge Group live webcast on March 9, 2017. SEC Rule 21F-17 prohibits confidentiality agreements and other measures which restrict access to the SEC whistleblower program. The one hour webcast at noon (EST) will cover the rule protecting...

Hackers and Insider Trading Remain a Threat to SEC It was more than a year ago that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cracked down on a group of hackers and traders who obtained confidential, non-public information about publicly traded companies by hacking websites for press releases. A recently released report by a cybersecurity...