Definition of Collected Proceeds Dropped The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the reconciliation of the tax legislation has dropped the definition of collected proceeds for the IRS whistleblower program introduced into the Senate version that passed. The amendment was added by Senator Chuck Grassley, an advocate for whistleblowers and responsible for introducing the legislative...
Mortgage Fraud Continues We are reaching the end of a decade since mortgage fraud hit its peak in 2007. However, the latest settlement by IberiaBank suggests that at least one lender continued aspects of mortgage fraud against the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) well after becoming informed of their wrongdoing. IberiaBank agreed to pay the United...
SEC Recovers Over $1 Billion Over the past week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued total rewards of over $20 million to three SEC whistleblowers. As a result, SEC enforcement actions involving whistleblowers have now recovered more than $1 billion in financial remedies against whistleblowers. The SEC whistleblower program has been accepting tips...
SEC Attempts to Halt ICO by PlexCoin The SEC today announced an enforcement action against the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) by PlexCoin. The SEC obtained a freeze on the purportedly $15 million in investor funds raised by PlexCoin from thousands of U.S. and international investors since August. According to the complaint filed by the SEC...
Cryptocurrency, led by bitcoin, has become a hot topic in the mainstream media recently. Both the CME and Nasdaq have announced plans to introduce trading in bitcoin futures. And the investing community continues to be split between those who believe it is the future of currency and those who believe it is a bubble or,...
The Debate in Collected Proceeds Still Continues The Justice Department has appealed a decision by the U.S. Tax Court last year to provide an IRS whistleblower reward based upon a criminal fine and civil forfeitures. The Government’s appeal to the D.C. Circuit attempts to reverse a favorable decision for whistleblowers on the definition of collected...
2017 CFTC Whistleblower Report The CFTC has also issued its annual report to Congress on the Dodd-Frank Act whistleblower program during Fiscal Year 2017. The CFTC did not issue any whistleblower awards last year. However, it did amend the whistleblower rules and regulations through a period of public notice and comment rulemaking. The CFTC Whistleblower...
Annual Whistleblower Report is Here The annual SEC whistleblower report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2017 has been released. It provides information and data about the activities of the SEC Whistleblower Office (referred to in the report as OWB) from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. Over the year period, the SEC received over...
An Expensive False Claims Act Repeal The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has estimated that the state of Wisconsin gave up $11 million when it weakened the Wisconsin False Claims Act and then repealed it as part of the 2015-2017 budget process. The Federal False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et. seq., is the...
Annual Report by the SEC Enforcement Division This week, the SEC Enforcement Division issued its annual report on its enforcement actions in Fiscal Year 2017 and its priorities for the future. The SEC whistleblower office will put out a separate report, but the enforcement division noted that the SEC reviewed more than 16,000 tips and...