2023 was another big year for whistleblowers, helping the government recover billions of dollars in dozens of fraud enforcement actions. As usual, virtually all these whistleblower-prompted recoveries were under the government's three primary whistleblower rewards programs -- the False Claims Act, the SEC Whistleblower Program, and the CFTC Whistleblower Program. Successful whistleblowers under each of these...
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) bars payments to foreign officials for any kind of business advantage, such as securing government contracts or other kinds of favorable business treatment. The statute covers any form of consideration including gifts, meals, travel, and entertainment. It also imposes strict record-keeping and internal control requirements to prevent falsifying company books and records...
Top Ten SEC and CFTC Whistleblower Awards for 2023
Posted 01/16/24
It was a relatively quiet year for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in their payout of whistleblower awards under their respective whistleblower programs. Under the SEC Program and CFTC Program -- both enacted under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act -- whistleblowers who provide information that leads to a successful government...
Better Markets Heralds SEC Whistleblower Program as a Model To Follow
Posted 12/14/23
Better Markets-- a nonpartisan nonprofit promoting the public interest in financial reform and the economy -- just released (on December 7) a report on the SEC Whistleblower Program, touting it as a $6 billion success story. In announcing its findings, Better Markets did not spare its high praise for the whistleblower program, highlighting "just how critical [it] has been as a law enforcement tool, allowing the SEC...
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced today (August 25) a whistleblower award of $18 million "to a whistleblower whose information and assistance led to a successful SEC enforcement action." Due to the agency's commitment to keeping the identity of its whistleblowers strictly confidential, it did not disclose who the whistleblower is, or the enforcement action to which the reward is tied.
All we...
Earlier this month (August 4), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its award of $104 million to seven whistleblowers "whose information and assistance led to a successful SEC enforcement action and related actions brought by another agency." It follows a string of blockbuster awards under the SEC Whistleblower Program, which provides whistleblowers who provide information leading to a successful...
It is the largest award ever made to a whistleblower on record under any of the ever-expanding list of whistleblower rewards programs. $279 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) "to a whistleblower whose information and assistance led to the successful enforcement of SEC and related actions." That is pretty much all the SEC disclosed in announcing the award because of the agency's strong...
In 2022, the SEC and CFTC redoubled their efforts to preserve market integrity and shut down financial frauds. Both in size and composition, the agencies’ major recoveries look quite different from a year prior. 2021 was all about crypto, with four of the top ten recoveries relating to crypto offerings or exchanges. With the recent collapse of the crypto market—exposing some of the biggest frauds since the...
2022 was a big year for whistleblowers, who once again recouped billions of government dollars and in turn received hundreds of millions in whistleblower rewards. This year’s top rewards came from various government whistleblower programs, including the qui tam provisions of the federal False Claims Act, various state False Claims Act programs, and the Dodd-Frank SEC Whistleblower Program.
Below is a...
In recent years, the United States government has recovered billions of dollars going after companies that bribe foreign officials in order to further their business interests, a practice that violates the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Two principal United States government agencies, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, investigate and prosecute FCPA violations. Whistleblowers...