Whistleblower Rewards

November 4, 2015

The SEC announced a whistleblower award totaling more than $325,000 for a former investment firm employee who tipped the agency with specific information that enabled enforcement staff to open an investigation and uncover the extent of the fraudulent activity.  The whistleblower waited until after leaving the firm to come forward to the SEC, however, and agency officials say the award could have been higher had this whistleblower not hesitated.  SEC

July 17, 2015

The SEC paid more than $3 million to a whistleblower whose “specific and detailed information comprehensively laid out the fraudulent scheme which otherwise would have been very difficult for investigators to detect.”  SEC

April 28, 2015

The SEC awarded $600,000 to a whistleblower who suffered “unique hardships, including retaliation” as a result of blowing the whistle on misconduct at hedge fund advisory firm Paradigm Capital Management.  It is the first time the SEC has made an award to a whistleblower in a retaliation case.  Whistleblower Insider

April 22, 2015

The SEC announced a whistleblower award of roughly $1.5 million to a compliance officer who had a reasonable basis to believe that disclosure to the SEC was necessary to prevent imminent misconduct from causing substantial financial harm to the company or investors.  This is the second award the SEC has made to an employee with internal audit or compliance responsibilities.  Whistleblower Insider

September 22, 2014

The SEC announced an expected whistleblower award of more than $30 million.  It will be the largest award to date under the SEC whistleblower program established in 2012 under the Dodd-Frank Act.  It surpasses the $14 million award the SEC made roughly a year ago.  The new award will also be the fourth award to a whistleblower living in a foreign country.  Whistleblower Insider

August 29, 2014

The SEC announced a whistleblower award of more than $300,000 to a company employee who performed audit and compliance functions and reported wrongdoing to the SEC after the company failed to take action when the employee reported it internally.  It is the first award for a whistleblower with an audit or compliance function at a company.  This particular whistleblower award recipient reported concerns of wrongdoing to appropriate personnel within the company, including a supervisor.  But when the company took no action on the information within 120 days, the whistleblower reported the same information to the SEC.  SEC

July 31, 2014

The SEC announced an award, under the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, of more than $400,000 for a whistleblower who reported a fraud to the SEC after the company failed to address the issue internally.  SEC

June 16, 2014

Albany, N.Y.-based hedge fund advisory firm Paradigm Capital Management and owner Candace King Weir agreed to pay $2.2M to settle charges of engaging in prohibited principal transactions and then retaliating against the employee who reported the trading activity to the SEC.  This is the first time the SEC has filed a whistleblower retaliation case under its new authority to bring such enforcement actions under the Dodd-Frank Act.  SEC

January 12, 2016

Kentucky-based healthcare provider Kindred Healthcare, Inc. and its two RehabCare Group subsidiaries agreed to pay $125 million to resolve allegations of violating the False Claims Act by knowingly causing skilled nursing facilities to submit false claims to Medicare for rehabilitation therapy services that were not reasonable, necessary and skilled, or that never occurred at all.  According to the government, RehabCare’s policy has been to achieve the highest Medicare reimbursement level regardless of the clinical needs of its patients, resulting in the provision of unreasonable and unnecessary services to Medicare patients, and its skilled nursing facility customers submitting inflated bills to Medicare covering those services.  The allegations originated in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Janet Halpin, a RehabCare physical therapist and former rehabilitation manager, and Shawn Fahey, a RehabCare occupational therapist, under the qui tamprovisions of the False Claims Act.  They will receive a whistleblower award of nearly $24 million from the government proceeds of the settlement.  Whistleblower Insider