You know about fraud, waste, abuse, or corruption by an individual or a company. Someone is getting by with cheating -- taking money from the government, taxpayers, or investors, or even harming others, such as patients. You are deeply troubled about it and want the proper authorities to stop it. You are worried whether you will be heard, taken seriously, and protected. You wonder if your information fits within a...
Catch of the Week — Merrill Lynch Commodities Inc.
Posted 06/28/19
Merrill Lynch Commodities Inc (“Merrill”), a commodity trading subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation, agreed on June 25th to two $25 million settlements with both the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) to resolve allegations it conducted deceptive trading practices in United States commodities markets.
Calling all FCPA Whistleblowers — The CFTC Wants You!
Posted 06/19/19
If you have information on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations in the commodities or derivatives markets, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) wants to hear from you. The agency made this clear in a recently-issued CFTC "Whistleblower Alert" calling on all FCPA whistleblowers to step forward and report what they know.
The agency even dangled the potential for monetary rewards for those...
On Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a whistleblower award of roughly $1.5 million. It is the latest in a string of whistleblower awards from an agency that has made it very clear that after a slow start in implementing its whistleblower program it is finally open for whistleblower business. CFTC Enforcement Director James McDonald could not have been more direct on this point:...
DOJ to Corporate America — Embrace the Whistleblower
Posted 05/9/19
In a clear push to companies to tighten up their internal compliance efforts, the DOJ Criminal Division recently announced a remake of the agency's guidelines for corporate compliance programs. The document, titled "The Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs," updates a previous version of the guidelines and is designed to provide more insight and context into the steps DOJ expects companies to take to ensure...
The Latest on Cryptocurrency, Offshore Tax Avoidance and Money-Laundering, and Whistleblowing: A Report from OffshoreAlert Miami 2019
Posted 05/3/19
“A diverse collection of the hunters and the hunted.”
That’s how the Wall Street Journal described the OffshoreAlert Conference in 2009. The 2019 conference was no different, bringing together those who work in the offshore industry, the government enforcers who try to stop the unscrupulous among them, and the asset recovery professionals who pursue lost funds. Alongside them were whistleblowers and their...
CFTC Pays Whistleblower Award for Related Action Brought by Another Federal Regulator
Posted 03/14/19
On March 4, 2019, the CFTC announced an award of $2 million to an anonymous whistleblower who was not an insider, but provided “critical information through independent analysis of market data” that lead to several million in recoveries by two regulatory agencies. Moreover, as the Order makes clear, the whistleblower’s $2 million award is based not just on the CFTC’s recovery, but also on a recovery in a...
CFTC Playing Catch Up Makes Another Whistleblower Award
Posted 03/6/19
On Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a whistleblower award totaling more than $2 million. It is the latest in what has been a string of recent CFTC awards after a very slow start for the CFTC Whistleblower Program. Indeed, 2018 was a banner year for the program reflecting what appears to be a renewed commitment by the agency to make up for lost time and embrace the critical role...
2018 was another banner year for whistleblowers. As the DOJ recently reported in its annual summary of False Claims Act recoveries, $2.1 billion of the $2.8 billion in settlements and judgments reported last year arose from lawsuits filed under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. During the same period, the government paid out $301 million in whistleblower awards to the individuals who exposed the fraud by...