Category: News

SEC Enforcement Impacted by Supreme Court The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision in Kokesh v. SEC published at the beginning of June, held that a five year statute of limitations applies to any claim for disgorgement. The decision could limit the amount of fines issued by the SEC and will be an important one...

Whistleblower Award in the Millions The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently agreed to provide approximately $2.5 million to a SEC whistleblower that worked for a government agency. The SEC whistleblower both provided the initial information that led to the opening of the case but also provided critical documents and testimony that accelerated the pace...

Medicare Advantage Fraud Medicare Advantage fraud has been an area of increasing focus recently. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice intervened in two whistleblower lawsuits against UnitedHealth. Investigations into the operation of other Medicare Advantage plans are reportedly continuing. And the amount of money at stake in this area continues to increase as more...

Still Waiting for the NHTSA Whistleblower Rules The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has yet to publish the proposed rules for the NHTSA whistleblower program. This whistleblower program was authorized by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act in December 2015. The terms of the Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act required the Department of...

Financial Conduct Authority Details Decline in Whistleblower Tips A report earlier this month by the Financial Conduct Authority detailed the declining number of whistleblower tips reported to the British authorities. From 2014-15 to 2016-17, the number of reports has declined each year, resulting in just 900 cases in the last year. In 2014-15, the FCA...

A Record Award A media outlet, Financial Planning, is predicting that a pair of SEC whistleblowers will share an award of approximately $70.6 million out of the $307 million in regulatory fines against JPMorgan in 2015. Another outlet, Advisor Hub, put the number at $61 million instead. Either award amount would be the largest in...

Corporate Whistleblowing in 2017 The Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, Jane Norberg, and the Director of the CFTC Whistleblower Office, Christopher Ehrman, spoke recently at the Practicing Law Institute’s program on June 28, 2017, titled Corporate Whistleblowing in 2017. Their comments covered a wide range of hot topics in the field of...

U.S. Tax Court Denied Serial Whistleblower Anonymity The Tax Court has reminded IRS whistleblowers in a recent decision that the ability to proceed anonymously is not absolute. On June 28, 2017, the U.S. Tax Court denied an anonymous proceeding to Whistleblower 14377-16W after weighing the public interest in knowing who is using the Tax Court...