This archive includes posts from our “Top Ten” series, in which the Whistleblower Insider blog reviews notable government enforcement actions and whistleblower news – not always in groups of ten. Return to:
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...
It was another big year for DOJ enforcement under the False Claims Act, the government's primary fraud-fighting tool. As usual, most of the recoveries were in the healthcare space with seven of the Top-10 involving various schemes to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.
Several of these Top-10 recoveries involved enforcement actions targeting violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law, which prohibit medical...
Tax fraud can take many forms, but each form results in shortchanging government coffers. More seriously, with our tax system depending heavily on taxpayers’ willingness to voluntarily file tax returns and pay taxes, tax fraud undermines confidence in the system. Enforcement of tax laws builds confidence in the system, and deserves to be a law enforcement priority.
The top tax recoveries in 2022 start with...
Top Ten Federal Financial and Healthcare Fraud Prison Sentences of 2022
Posted 02/2/23
Financial and healthcare fraud often can carry stiff monetary penalties for entities facing government enforcement, as shown on our other Top Ten Lists. Whistleblowers reporting wrongful conduct under one of the federal whistleblower reward laws sometimes find that criminal authorities are as interested in their allegations as civil enforcement agencies and authorities. Fraud can also result in criminal charges and...
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...
Top Ten Federal Financial Fraud Recoveries of 2022
Posted 02/1/23
Federal enforcement of financial fraud takes many forms. This year, thanks to positive developments in the world of money-laundering enforcement, we have expanded our Top Ten Lists related to federal financial fraud. In addition to documenting SEC and CFTC enforcement actions, FCPA enforcement, and money-laundering enforcement, the following list focuses on financial fraud in other realms.
The Consumer Financial...