The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on September 20, 2016 an award of over $4 million to a whistleblower. The whistleblower’s original information alerted the SEC to a fraud. The SEC whistleblower program was established by Congress in 2011 to incentivize whistleblowers with specific, timely and credible information about federal…
Insiders in the investment advice sector are starting to grow bolder and start a trend of notifying the SEC of bad-acting firms and principals. On August 30, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced another whistleblower award in the amount of more than $22 million. The amount is the second-largest…
Litigating a case can take a long time and accrues many costs and fees. Among those fees include filing costs, the cost of hiring an expert to testify, the cost of various office tasks such as printing and mailing, and many others. But the first cost that immediately comes to…
On August 30, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced the award of more than $22 million to a company insider whistleblower. According to the SEC order, the SEC determined the whistleblower’s tip and extensive assistance helped the agency stop a well-hidden fraud at the whistleblower’s employing company. The…
California-based Health Net Inc. has agreed to pay a penalty for illegally using its severance agreements to require outgoing employees to waive their ability to obtain monetary awards from the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) whistleblower program. Health Net has agreed to pay a $340,000 penalty per the SEC’s…
Atlanta-based building products distributor BlueLinx Inc. is settling charges that it violated an important whistleblower protection rule by using severance agreements that required departing employees to waive their rights to monetary recovery should they file a charge or complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) or other federal…
The Securities and Exchange Commission has awarded at least $8.95 million to four whistleblowers in May 2016. The first award was on May 13, 2016, when the SEC awarded a whistleblower $3.5 million for providing a tip that strengthened the SEC’s case in an ongoing investigation. According to the order…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has taken the side of the whistleblower in a dispute against mutual fund giant Vanguard Group. The SEC filed a brief on March 28, 2016 in support of David Danon, a former lawyer at the Pennsylvania-based money manager who said Vanguard terminated him because…
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) announced on April 4, 2016 an award of more than $10 million to a whistleblower who provided important, original information that led to a successful CFTC enforcement action. The award is the largest made by the CFTC’s whistleblower program, according to a CFTC…
Second Circuit of Appeals reverses lower court’s dismissal The Second Circuit of Appeals contributed to the ongoing battle over the definition of a whistleblower September 10 by remanding a workplace retaliation case dismissed by a lower court in 2014. Daniel Berman reported an alleged violation within his corporation before reporting…