In the SEC’s latest press release
, seven individuals have received bounties after supplying credible information and continued assistance that led to a successful enforcement action. The same information and assistance led to another successful related action by a different federal agency. The bounty of $104 million is the fourth largest award in the history of the SEC’s Whistleblower program. Continue reading
The SEC has announced its latest whistleblower bounty of approximately $9 million to one individual. The amount represents a percentage of the collected monetary sanctions from the enforcement actions.
In the press release, the SEC stated that the individual “repeatedly” reported their concerns internally before submitting their information to the Enforcement Division. The whistleblower then provided “substantial and ongoing cooperation” to SEC staff, which included substantial, comprehensive information that led to a successful enforcement action. Continue reading
In December 2022, the social media world was stunned to learn that federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were filing civil and criminal charges against eight social media influencers. According to the complaints, the prosecutors and SEC accuse the influencers of using their social media visibility to manipulate stock prices—a $114 million fraud scheme. As we will discuss below, the case highlights the line between legitimate advice to investors and illegality, whether it’s dispensed online for the public or in more traditional forms of investor communications. Continue reading
Largely ignored amidst the fanfare (and controversy) surrounding the spending bill that President Biden signed into law at the end of the year is a historic provision relating to whistleblowing and anti-corruption efforts. Industry experts have heralded passage of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Whistleblower Improvement Act as a vital step against foreign and domestic corruption. Continue reading
On September 28, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it had settled actions against two public companies for improperly reporting their quarterly Earnings Per Share (EPS). These actions were the first to come out of the agency’s Division of Enforcement’s “EPS Initiative.” A handful of other companies have been investigated since then due to the initiative, and there are signals that this is just the beginning. For SEC whistleblowers, the EPS Initiative and related enforcement actions shine new light on companies’ malfeasance and liability. Continue reading
In our last post, we went over a brief history of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblower program—including its creation in the aftermath of the catastrophic multi-billion dollar Ponzi schemes run by Bernard Madoff and Alan Stanford, and the recognition that the SEC had been repeatedly warned about both frauds but failed to act on the information. We also reviewed some of the ways in which the SEC has revised the program in recent years. This post explores the impact of the program’s origin and those early challenges on whistleblowers today. Continue reading
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblower program is considered one of the more successful government initiatives around—especially when it comes to financial institutions and investing. It’s been so successful that Congress has created other whistleblowing programs closely modeled after the SEC’s. Despite the fanfare, many financial executives, corporate CEOs, and most main street investors may not be aware of the history of the whistleblowing program—especially why it was created in the first place. But it’s worth spending time to address because the history of the program impacts how it operates today. Continue reading
Employers are prohibited from retaliating against whistleblower, but many employers do so anyway without regard for the employee’s rights or federal law.
Gaia is a member-supported subscription streaming company that features videos for yoga, meditation, spirituality, mysticism, and other non-mainstream topics. The company was formerly known as Gaiam, a purveyor of equipment and DVDs for yoga and other exercise, which later included streaming videos. The company split in 2016, with the video streaming side becoming Gaia, and the yoga equipment company changing its name and branding to GetACTV. Continue reading
The cryptocurrency world is still reeling from the collapse of FTX, the crypto exchange that went bankrupt last December. Overnight, it seemed that billions had disappeared, and no one—notably not its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried—seemed to know where the money had gone. It’s unclear if investors will ever see any money returned to them. And it’s equally unclear if Bankman-Fried will ever see the inside of a prison cell. Continue reading
In our previous posts, we’ve examined the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) increased enforcement actions against what are called “special purpose acquisition companies” (SPACs). In our final post for the SPAC series, we’ll examine other issues in recent SEC enforcement actions, and some SPAC-related rules the SEC plans to implement. Continue reading
SEC Whistleblower Lawyer Blog