Top Ten Whistleblower Developments of 2019

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 whistleblowers had in 2019.  Below,...

Vote Now for the 2019 Whistleblower of the Year

THANK YOU FOR VOTING FOR THE 2019 WHISTLEBLOWER OF THE YEAR. POLLS ARE NOW CLOSED AND WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT Anonymous CIA Whistleblower on Ukraine IS OUR 2019 WINNER! Whistleblower Insider wants to hear from you on who should be honored as our 2019 Whistleblower of the Year. As in past years, we are especially interested in those individuals who best encapsulate the qualities of the typical whistleblower...

Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team’s Top-Ten “Staff Picks” of 2019

From cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and “big data” to private-equity backed healthcare, private detention facilities, and the essential whistleblower experience – your prolific and relentless CC WB bloggers have chosen some of their favorite 2019 posts (and one from 2018) – don’t miss these insider-favorite gems! Your worst nightmare – private data exposed to the unscrupulous – could be curbed by effective whistleblowers with information about cybersecurity breaches at companies with government...

Top Ten SEC and CFTC Recoveries of 2019

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 in the commodities markets, with whistleblowers...

DOJ 2019 Fraud Statistics Tell Story of the Critical Role of Whistleblowers

The Department of Justice released its annual report of civil recoveries for fraud and false claims against the U.S., showing recoveries over $3 billion in settlements and judgments for the fiscal year ending September 2019. The data released by DOJ show the critical role that whistleblowers play in securing these recoveries for the government:  of the $3 billion recovered, over $2.2 billion – 72% – was recovered in cases initiated...

Top Ten Whistleblower Awards of 2019

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, and under the various state False Claims Act programs....

Why Whistleblowers Should be Honorary Members of the new Antitrust Strike Force

When our firm represented a whistleblower who brought down the largest oil companies in Korea for bid-rigging, resulting in fines and penalties of over $360 million, we did not imagine the case would play a role in launching a new initiative, the Justice Department’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force. The Strike Force is an interagency partnership tasked with rooting out collusive schemes like bid-rigging. The new group includes the Antitrust Division,...

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

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 illustrate the benefits of the SEC Whistleblower Program, which...

Legislation Watch: Proposed Amendments to Bank Secrecy Act Include Whistleblower Rewards

Currently in the 116th Congress, both the House and Senate are considering bills that would amend existing law to provide a whistleblower reporting system and meaningful financial rewards to whistleblowers who come forward to the federal government to report unlawful money laundering and other violations of specified banking laws. We have previously written on the important benefits that would be available with meaningful anti-money laundering (“AML”) whistleblower rewards. These bills,...

Catch of the Week — Yukom Communications and Others Face CFTC Claims of Binary Options Fraud

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed suit against five entities and four individuals on August 12, 2019, in the Northern District of Illinois for running a $103 million fraudulent binary options scheme. The defendants, led by Israeli company Yukom Communications Ltd.,which marketed binary options using two websites known as BinaryBook and BigOption. In recent years, the CFTC has targeted fraudulent binary options schemes offered by unregistered entities and individuals.  Binary...