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...
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...
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...
The annual battle over the funding of securities and derivatives regulators by Congress took a step forward today as a Senate panel heard from the chair of the SEC and the CFTC concerning their Fiscal Year 2017 budget request. Combined, the SEC and CFTC are seeking funding for the hiring of more than 400 additional...
It has been quite a few months since we have heard anything big about the continuing pursuit of mortgage fraud lawsuits. However, that silence changed last week with the announcement on Friday of a $1.2 billion settlement by Wells Fargo. It was followed today by a $5 billion settlement agreement with Goldman Sachs. The Justice...
The SEC issued an order for an award of more than $275,000 to a whistleblower this week although it hasn’t yet announced the decision publicly on its website. True to past procedure, details about both the individual and the enforcement action have been redacted. However, the individual receiving the award was the subject of a...
There has been a couple news items related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act this week, with the Justice Department announcing a one year pilot program to encourage self-disclosure and the SEC settling its investigation of Las Vegas Sands with an enforcement action totaling $9 million. The One-Year Pilot Program The Justice Department has been...
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced its third whistleblower award and the largest to date. The CFTC whistleblower will receive more than $10 million for information provided to the U.S. Government about a violation of the Commodity Exchange Act or CFTC rules. The reward is the third largest to date in the short...
We are pleased to share with you the news from February and March that Young Law Group secured landmark decisions in two large health care fraud lawsuits against Pfizer and Teva and a third in the case against Bayer for Essure where we are co-counsel. The Pfizer Lawsuit The complaint against Pfizer, one of the...
We’ve seen two big stories concerning the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) come to light in the news media over the past few days. A report by The Huffington Post has alleged that “[h]undreds of major international corporations” including KBR, Rolls-Royce and Samsung hired Unaoil and that the company engaged in bribery of foreign government...