Utopian city at sunset, representing eligibility for SEC whistleblower rewards

Congress Considers Co-Conspirator Eligibility for SEC Whistleblower Rewards in 2017

Eligibility for SEC Whistleblower Rewards A memo circulated in early February regarding the Financial Choice Act produced by House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) has proposed the elimination of SEC whistleblower rewards for co-conspirators. The SEC whistleblower program established by the Dodd-Frank Act currently prohibits the SEC from taking into account any monetary sanctions...

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Court Rules Definitively on Confidentiality for SEC Whistleblowers in 2017

Decision on Confidentiality for SEC Whistleblowers A U.S. District Court in the Southern District of California has recently ruled on the validity of a SEC whistleblower’s defense to the enforcement of a company’s confidentiality agreement. In the decision, the Court accepts the validity of a public policy defense to a limited whistleblower disclosure of confidential information...

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A Review of Recent Damaging Clean Energy Fraud

Clean Energy Fraud All Around Us We have discussed the potential for whistleblower actions grounded in the protection of the environment and compliance with environmental laws here before. Most depend on the unique circumstances of the case and the fraudulent scheme in order to fit within one of the whistleblower programs. With the Trump Administration...

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Massive Medicare Advantage Fraud Lawsuit Unveiled Against UnitedHealth

Medicare Advantage Fraud Lawsuit The United States has joined a lawsuit brought by whistleblowers under the False Claims Act accusing UnitedHealth Group of bilking Medicare by fraudulently boosting payments through the inflation of plan members’ risk scores under Medicare Advantage. In other words, UnitedHealth told the United States that patients were sicker than they were...

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International Whistleblower Rewards See Boost

We are seeing more movement on the payment of whistleblower rewards internationally. Nigeria and Korea have been paying rewards recently and Australia continues to consider stronger retaliation protections and monetary incentives. This is in addition to the Ontario Securities Commission’s implementation of a program to reward tips about securities fraud last year. Here is a...

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DOE Delays Whistleblower Protection Rule

The Department of Energy recently announced in the Federal Register a 60 day stay of its new regulation permitting civil penalties against contractors and subcontractors that retaliate against an employee reporting fraud, waste or abuse. The DOE cited the Chief of Staff’s January 20, 2017 memorandum, which calls for a 60 day delay in the...

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IRS Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2017

The Internal Revenue Service is just over halfway done releasing its list of tax scams for 2017. The Dirty Dozen list has been an annual feature of the IRS website and garners a significant amount of media attention warning taxpayers to avoid the tax evasion techniques and fraudulent schemes listed. In recent years, the IRS...

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Rising Costs of Retaliation Against Whistleblowers

Firing whistleblowers for informing the government about corporate activities has been standard practice at many businesses for a long time. That practice may be changing quickly if the government continues to pursue enforcement actions against companies engaged in retaliation and juries continue to provide multi-million dollar verdicts to whistleblowers. This week, the media reported an...

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FCPA Enforcement in 2017

The end of the Obama Administration was one of the busiest in the resolution of government investigations ever. The SEC and DOJ wrapped up nine Foreign Corrupt Practice Act investigations in the course of two months. The enforcement actions involved: Odebrecht and Braskem: $3.5 billion (US, Brazil and Switzerland) Rolls Royce: $800 million (US, UK...

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IRS Whistleblower Awards Up Big in FY 2016

In the 10th year since the creation of Internal Revenue Code section 7623(b), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Whistleblower Program issued 418 awards totaling more than $61 million (before sequestration), according to the annual report issued by the program’s Whistleblower Office to Congress. The total number of awards represented a 322 percent increase over fiscal year...

Author: Young Law Group