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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 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,

Catch of the Week: Tenet Healthcare to Pay $66M Over Kickback Allegations

Posted 11/7/19

Tenet Healthcare, a healthcare giant that operates 65 hospitals and conducts over 10 million patient encounters annually, has agreed in principle to pay the United States roughly $66M to settle allegations that it violated the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute. These laws generally prohibit medical providers from paying or receiving kickbacks, remuneration, or anything of value in exchange for referrals of...

Tagged in: Anti-Kickback and Stark, Catch of the Week, FCA Federal, Importance of Whistleblowers, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Rewards,

How to Report Visa Fraud for a Whistleblower Reward

Posted 09/25/19

A settlement with India-based management consulting firm Mu Sigma shows how whistleblowers can make a difference in visa enforcement. In September, 2019, Mu Sigma agreed to pay the U.S. $2.5 million to settle claims that it evaded H-1B visa requirements and brought employees to the U.S. on B1 visitor visas, misrepresenting the nature of their intended employment. In announcing the settlement, Immigration and Customs...

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Financial and Investment Fraud, Importance of Whistleblowers, International Whistleblowers, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Securities Fraud, Visa Fraud,

Deutsche Bank Pays More than $16M to Settle SEC Charges of FCPA Violations

Posted 08/30/19

Last week, the SEC announced that German-based banking giant Deutsche Bank agreed to pay more than $16 million to settle charges it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by hiring relatives of foreign officials in China and Russia to get investment banking business. See SEC Press Release. According to the SEC’s order, these so-called "referral hires" bypassed the bank's merit-based hiring process and...

Tagged in: FCPA, Importance of Whistleblowers, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Whistleblower Case, Whistleblower Eligibility, Whistleblower Rewards,

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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 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

Catch of the Week: Tenet Healthcare to Pay $66M Over Kickback Allegations

How to Report Visa Fraud for a Whistleblower Reward

Deutsche Bank Pays More than $16M to Settle SEC Charges of FCPA Violations

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