Whistleblower

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With so much happening during the holidays, who wants to think about preventive steps and corporate compliance? Unfortunately, expansion of New York’s “whistleblower protection” laws coupled with the ongoing pandemic-related return to work issues make it increasingly critical for employers to ring in the New Year with an understanding of these new developments. High on…

Fiscal Year 2021 was a record year for the Whistleblower Program (the “Program”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or the “Commission”). The Commission released its 2021 Annual Report to Congress (the “Report”) last Monday and it reflects substantial increases in many different metrics. The Program has already awarded more than $1.1…

The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted to adopt numerous amendments to the rules governing its whistleblower program. See https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-219

The whistleblower program serves as a significant tool for the Commission to encourage individuals to come forward with information regarding suspected security fraud. As set forth in the SEC’s press release, “The amendments to the…

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced a whistleblower award of more than $27 million, representing the largest SEC whistleblower award of 2020.  This is the sixth largest award overall since the inception of the SEC whistleblower program in 2011.

Congress established the whistleblower program to incentivize whistleblowers to report specific, timely, and credible…

With enactment of the CARES Act on March 27, Congress appropriated $2.2 trillion, the largest economic stimulus package in history, to combat COVID-19 and the serious economic damage it has wrought to all facets of the economy. Along with this mammoth government subsidy, however, comes the prospect of unprecedented fraud and abuse in sectors of…

The United States House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Relations is considering proposed changes to protections available to U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) whistleblowers.

The Subcommittee’s January 28, 2020, public hearings received testimony from David K. Colapinto, National Whistleblower Center, Glenn A. Fine, U.S. Department of Defense, Elizabeth Hempowicz, Project on Government Oversight, Michael E.…

In its 2019 Annual Report to Congress, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) whistleblower program announced a “momentous milestone”: The SEC has ordered over $2 billion in sanctions since the inception of the whistleblower program.

The Report outlined other key statistics from FY 2019.  Approximately $60 million was awarded to eight…

A February 20, 2019 article from Bloomberg Law provides statistics to explain the significant delays experienced by litigators and attorneys alike in Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s investigation of whistleblower claims. A substantial increase in the number of whistleblower complaints filed with OSHA over the past five years and a contemporaneous decrease in the number…

2018 was a transformative year for corporate governance. Record whistleblower awards, an increasing number internal investigations partly arising out of the #MeToo movement, an expansion of the role of companies’ boards, and corporate social responsibility all shaped 2018. This is our retrospective review of these trends.

 Record Whistleblower Tips and Awards and Possible Changes

Companies…

We follow the leader wherever we go, and that applies to compliance, as well. While federal and state laws require organizations to adopt compliance programs, a low level of commitment to these compliance efforts from the highest levels of management can pose a serious threat to the implementation and sustainability of such programs. It is…