Whistleblower Law Blog
Topic: Fraud Types
SEC Gives $300K to Whistleblower Working in Audit/Compliance
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it awarded more than $300,000 to a whistleblower who first reported wrongdoing internally — but then went to the feds after being ignored for four months.
The SEC typically doesn’t reveal details about the people who receive awards under the Dodd-Frank Act, since the law grants confidentiality to whistleblowers, but the agency said this was its first-ever payout to a person who worked in a company’s audit or compliance areas.
New York Awards Whistleblower $300,000 for Reporting Tax Evasion Scheme
New York continued to crack down on tax cheats under its strengthened False Claims Act (FCA), awarding a whistleblower more than $300,000 for reporting an out-of-state retailer’s failure to collect sales tax on high-end appliances it delivered to New York customers.
SEC Brings First Action on Whistleblower Retaliation
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it filed — and promptly settled, for $2.2 milllion — its first-ever charges against a company for retaliating against a whistleblower who reported wrongdoing under the Dodd-Frank Act.
The SEC charged Paradigm Capital Management Inc., a hedge fund advisory firm, with engaging in prohibited principal transactions and then removing a head trader from his regular responsibilities after he reported the conflict of interest to the SEC.
CFTC Gives Whistleblower $240,000 in First Award Under Dodd-Frank
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) finally made a whistleblower award under its Dodd-Frank mandate, but released virtually no information about the enforcement action that led to its $240,000 payout.
Rule 345 Provides a New Shield for IRS Whistleblowers
A U.S. Tax Court judge on Tuesday allowed three whistleblowers to hide their identities in court for reasons that ranged from death threats to a fear of professional ostracism.
The rulings by Judge Diane L. Kroupa appear to be the the first decisions publicly reached under the Tax Court’s Rule 345, which in 2012 established a formal procedure for tax whistleblowers to request anonymity.
Whistleblower Nurse Reaps $15 Million Reward in Amedisys Fraud Settlement
The U.S. Department of Justice announced settlements with several healthcare companies accused of fraud — including a massive $150 million deal with Amedisys Inc. in which the government resolved seven lawsuits with the giant homecare provider, leading to more than $26 million in payouts to whistleblowers and a jackpot for U.S. taxpayers.
The largest whistleblower reward, more than $15 million, went to April Brown, an Alabama nurse and single mother who was fired by Amedisys after she questioned its Medicare billing practices.
March Whistleblower Rewards Include $500,000 in Cargo Price-Fixing Case
The U.S. Department of Justice announced settlements in three large qui tam cases during March — including a price-fixing case where the whistleblower earned a half-million-dollar reward.
The Top Ten Whistleblower Decisions of 2013: Part 1
For whistleblowers and their advocates, 2013 was a whipsaw year: Big advances followed sharp letdowns in quick rotation — sometimes from the same source. (Ahem, Supreme Court and White House.)
Plus there was the Snowden sideshow. But since NSA leaker Edward Snowden was never a real whistleblower — he acted outside the law and fled the consequences — his headline-grabbing revelations taught us no useful legal lessons.
Instead, the true news of 2013 was choppy-but-clear progress toward more employee-friendly readings of federal whistleblower laws. After two years of success at the administrative level, retaliation victims started getting their day in ever-higher courts. The U.S. Supreme Court put a cherry on the trend by hearing arguments in Lawson v. FMR LLC, its first whistleblowing case under the crucial Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).
SEC Makes Another Whistleblower Payout — This Time at Maximum 30%
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its second whistleblower award in a month, saying it will give the maximum 30% share of penalties in an unidentified case to a tipster who helped in the enforcement action.
Coming after a huge $14 million award earlier in October, the more modest payout of more than $150,000 suggests that the SEC’s whistleblower office is systematically nailing all of its prescribed metrics: Successive announcements have emphasized payout speed (payment in August on an award made in June); payout size (the $14 million award); and, here, payout percentage.
SEC Whistleblower Program Makes Its Bones With $14 Million Award
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) awarded an unnamed tipster more than $14 million, obliterating all doubt about the resolve of the agency’s whistleblower program.
The SEC didn’t identify the underlying enforcement action in either its press release or a related order, but the award’s enormous size indicates that the U.S. government may reap as much as $140 million in penalties as a result of the whistleblower’s information.
The Employment Law Group® law firm produces this blog to provide general news and information about the field of whistleblower law. The blog does not contain any legal advice upon which you should rely or act. Please read our disclaimer.
Editor-in-Chief
R. Scott Oswald
Contributing Editor
Laurence Hooper
Popular Topics
- Administrative Review Board (ARB)
- Dodd-Frank Act
- False Claims Act (FCA)
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
- Medicare Fraud
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
- Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
- Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- Securities Fraud
- Tax Fraud
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA)
