Accounting pages and a coffee mug, representing internal and external audits

Shell Corps Used in Offshore Tax Evasion Targeted

The war against international tax evasion took another step forward yesterday with President Obama proposing a federal registry of the owners of all companies created and operating in the United States to aid in the elimination of anonymous shell companies. The Treasury Department will implement a rule requiring banks and certain financial institutions to collect...

100 Dollar Bills representing settlement and False Claims Act

DOJ Investigating Unaoil Bribery under FCPA

Two companies have now disclosed receiving inquiries from the U.S. Department of Justice concerning Monaco-based engineering company Unaoil S.A.M. Media reports published by The Huffington Post earlier this year have implicated Unaoil in what HuffPo has called the “World’s Biggest Bribe Scandal”. The disclosures of receipt of an inquiry from the U.S. Department of Justice...

Federal Trade Secret Reform Helps Whistleblowers

From time to time, companies accuse whistleblowers of disclosing trade secrets in violation of a confidentiality agreement. In False Claims Act cases, these counterclaims have sometimes caused relators to have to defend their reports to the federal government against potential legal liability asserted by the business. A recent act of Congress has been sent to...

Person Holding a Black Digital Tablet, representing Fake News on Stocks

SEC Opens Comments on Market Manipulation Database

For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been discussing building a database of information about stock and options trading activity. The Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) system took another step closer to creation when the SEC voted to open the plan to public comment yesterday. The goal of CAT is to allow the SEC to...

Close up of books - False Claims Act and whistleblower immunity

Co-Relator Sharing Agreements in Cases of Multiple Relators

A recent Illinois Appeals Court tackled the appropriateness of an agreement to share the proceeds of a qui tam lawsuit between a whistleblower and a silent (non-whistleblower) partner. We’ve never covered this topic here, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to look at how and why relators cooperate. Multiple relators can become...

Close-up Photo of the Stock Market, representing IRS Whistleblower Complaints

Spoofing Whistleblower Emerges in Oystacher Lawsuit

A trader at a market making firm and his colleague filed a tip with the CFTC whistleblower program about suspected illegal spoofing by Igor Oystacher after discovering suspicious trading activity in the E-mini S&P 500 futures contract market in 2013, according to a Bloomberg article. The CFTC has brought a lawsuit against Oystacher and is seeking to...

Beige Volkswagen Beetle, representing the $4 Billion Fine for Volkswagen and NHTSA Whistleblower Rules

The Largest Auto Fines in U.S. History

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States. Although manufacturers have made significant strides in decreasing the number of fatalities since the late 1960s and early 1970s, there have been several significant instances of auto manufacturers delaying recalls and leaving potentially defective vehicles on the road after they knew or...

International Whistleblower Protections Growing But Still Fall Short

Whistleblower protection is gaining traction in many nations but “much remains to be done” according to an OECD report published last month titled “Committing to Effective Whistleblower Protection”. For individuals reporting corporate misconduct such as bribery, this is especially true as whistleblower protection in the private sector is still “almost a legal vacuum”. The report...

IRS Whistleblowers to Get Help in Taxpayer Protection Act

The Senate Finance Committee approved the Taxpayer Protection Act of 2016 this week, which reforms the Internal Revenue Service’s communications with whistleblowers as well as protects taxpayers from identity theft and tax fraud. The bill will now go before the full Senate for approval. The reforms of the IRS whistleblower program include: Allowing the tax regulator to...

Close-up of the Front of a Black Sedan Automobile

Auto Whistleblower Law Created by FAST Act

Coverage of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act this week alerted us to the fact that the legislation, signed by President Obama at the end of last year, included the Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act among its many parts. The auto whistleblower law, originally sponsored by Senators Thune and Nelson, is now law. This...

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