Archive

Catch of the Week: SEC Hits Actor Steven Seagal for Improper ICO Promotion

Posted 03/6/20

This week’s Catch of the Week goes to the SEC for securing over $300,000 recovery from actor Steven Seagal in connection with his alleged failure to disclose payments he received for promoting an initial coin offering (ICO) conducted by Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G). The settlement is part of the SEC’s broader effort to combat the role of celebrities in promoting novel—and sometimes fraudulent—cryptocurrency...

Tagged in: Catch of the Week, Cryptocurrency, Financial and Investment Fraud, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Securities Fraud,

Top Ten Whistleblower Developments of 2019

Posted 02/6/20

By any measure, 2019 was a Very Big Year for whistleblowers. Our annual Top Ten lists identified 2019’s most significant financial recoveries by whistleblowers, as well as recoveries in enforcement actions at the federal and state level involving government procurement, healthcare, financial, tax, and other types of fraud. But the numbers, as impressive as they are, can’t tell the full story of the impact that...

Tagged in: CFTC Whistleblower Reward Program, Cybersecurity and Data Breaches, FCA Federal, Government Procurement Fraud, Healthcare Fraud, Importance of Whistleblowers, International Whistleblowers, Risk Adjustment Fraud, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Top 10,

Opioid Executive Sentenced to Over Five Years in Prison for Role in Healthcare Fraud Scheme

Posted 01/31/20

Insys Therapeutics, an opioid manufacturer whose main product is Subsys, a spray from of fentanyl that is 100 times stronger than morphine and cost tens of thousands a month, is in the news again. The company and its former CEO, John Kapoor, have been facing a mountain of legal issues in the past three years. Last week, in a decision that most of our readers agree with, Kapoor was sentenced to 66 months in prison.

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, Criminal Proceedings, FCA Federal, Healthcare Fraud, Importance of Whistleblowers, Medicaid, Medicare, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

Top Ten SEC and CFTC Recoveries of 2019

Posted 01/24/20

2019 was another busy year for the SEC and CFTC. Once again, the SEC netted hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and fines from companies and individuals accused of defrauding investors, breaching fiduciary duties, and violating the securities laws. And that’s in addition to the SEC’s robust FCPA enforcement in 2019. Meanwhile, the CFTC continued to root out market manipulators and other fraudsters...

Tagged in: Accounting Fraud, CFTC Whistleblower Reward Program, FCPA, Financial and Investment Fraud, Importance of Whistleblowers, Market Manipulation and Trading Violations, Misrepresentations, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Securities Fraud, Top 10,

Top Ten Financial and Healthcare Fraud Prison Sentences of 2019

Posted 01/23/20

Prison tower and fence silhouetted against sky

Financial and healthcare fraud schemes can result not just in civil investigations and liability, but also in prison time for the individuals involved. In 2019, the Department of Justice obtained substantial prison sentences in numerous cases involving healthcare and financial frauds, helping to bring justice to the patients, investors, or individuals harmed by criminal fraudsters. Many of the fraudulent...

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, Criminal Proceedings, Financial and Investment Fraud, Healthcare Fraud, Ponzi Schemes, Top 10,

Top Ten Environmental Fraud Settlements of 2019

Posted 01/17/20

Between Greta Thunberg's "Climate Strike" mass protests, the on-going saga over the Dakota Access Pipeline, the hoopla over plant-based diets, and record temperatures and ice melts – the environment was on everyone's mind in 2019. Whistleblowers can be eligible for financial rewards for reporting environmental violations in a number of different ways, and our review below features many recoveries – including...

Tagged in: Environmental Fraud, FCA Federal, Ocean Dumping, Securities Fraud, Top 10,

Top Ten Whistleblower Awards of 2019

Posted 01/9/20

2019 was another strong year for whistleblowers, who once again collectively recovered billions of dollars for the government and hundreds of millions of dollars in whistleblower rewards through their filing of lawsuits under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. Whistleblowers this past year also continued to secure financial rewards under the Dodd-Frank SEC Whistleblower and CFTC Whistleblower programs,...

Tagged in: CFTC Whistleblower Reward Program, FCA Federal, FCA State, Importance of Whistleblowers, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Top 10, Whistleblower Rewards,

SEC Whistleblower Program 2019 Annual Report Tells Story of Significant Impact - Despite Beginning the Year with a Government Shutdown

Posted 12/12/19

Securities and Exchange Commission seal on building

In its 2019 Annual Report to Congress, the SEC Office of the Whistleblower described its program as continuing to have a “significant impact” on enforcement and investor protection efforts. In the fiscal year that ended in September 2019, the SEC Whistleblower Program received the second highest number of tips in program history, and issued the third largest whistleblower award to date. These numbers...

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Importance of Whistleblowers, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Securities Fraud, Statistics,

Second Circuit Upholds SEC Denial of Whistleblower Rewards to Three Claimants in Deutsche Bank Settlement

Posted 11/13/19

Disorganized paper records stacked on table

In May 2015, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay a $55 million penalty to the SEC to settle charges that its financial statements misreported the value of a portfolio of derivatives, failing to take account of the material risk of potential losses associated with the derivatives. Subsequently, in November 2017, the SEC announced that it had awarded whistleblower rewards totaling $16 million to two whistleblowers “whose...

Tagged in: Court Decision, Financial and Investment Fraud, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Securities Fraud,

In Second-Ever Enforcement Action of Its Kind, SEC Stands with Whistleblower Against Company’s Attempt to Muzzle Reporting

Posted 11/8/19

Imagine that, after you invest in a company, you start to smell a rat. After you try to alert other investors or report what you believe is a fraudulent scheme, the company you invested in draws up an agreement that conditions your shareholding on a prohibition on speaking with regulatory agencies. If it seems illegal, that’s because it is. Yet that’s exactly what online auction and memorabilia company Collectors...

Tagged in: Confidentiality and The Seal, Financial and Investment Fraud, Importance of Whistleblowers, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Whistleblower Eligibility, Whistleblower Protection Laws,

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Catch of the Week: SEC Hits Actor Steven Seagal for Improper ICO Promotion

Top Ten Whistleblower Developments of 2019

Opioid Executive Sentenced to Over Five Years in Prison for Role in Healthcare Fraud Scheme

Top Ten SEC and CFTC Recoveries of 2019

Top Ten Financial and Healthcare Fraud Prison Sentences of 2019

Top Ten Environmental Fraud Settlements of 2019

Top Ten Whistleblower Awards of 2019

SEC Whistleblower Program 2019 Annual Report Tells Story of Significant Impact - Despite Beginning the Year with a Government Shutdown

Second Circuit Upholds SEC Denial of Whistleblower Rewards to Three Claimants in Deutsche Bank Settlement

In Second-Ever Enforcement Action of Its Kind, SEC Stands with Whistleblower Against Company’s Attempt to Muzzle Reporting

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