Paradigm Capital Management encountered a whistleblower and handled it poorly. The hedge fund had been conducting principal trades in violation of Section 206(3) of the Investment Advisers Act. Paradigm’s head trader reported the violations to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It’s tricky to deal with a hedge fund making principal trades with an affiliated broker-dealer. … Read more »
Category: Whistleblower
How Well is the SEC’s Whistleblower Program Working?
Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act created the SEC’s whistleblower program, awarding cash to individuals who report misdeeds that result in successful SEC cases. If the SEC collects more than $1 million, the whistleblower can receive between 10% and 30% of the award. Section 922 also required the Office … Read more »
Whistleblower Only Has to Believe There is Something Wrong
Whistleblower rights are growing stronger. The recent award of a reward in excess of $100 million to a whistleblower will certainly attract those looking for financial reward. Dodd-Frank not only increased the chances of getting a reward, it also provided broader rights to employees and the courts are starting to rule strongly in favor of … Read more »
SEC’s Whistleblower Annual Report
Dodd-Frank added Exchange Act Section 21F(g)(5) and requires that SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower to report to Congress annually on the whistleblower program. It’s due each October 30. I’m sure the SEC wanted to be in compliance, so they released the first annual report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower program (.pdf). Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank … Read more »
A Weekend of Whistleblowing
Friday marked the effective date of the SEC’s Whistlelower Rule. Lucky whistleblowers can now cash in with bounties of up to 30% of the government’s recovery when cases involve in excess of $1 million. The question I have is whether there was spike in tips submitted over the weekend? The SEC is trying to make … Read more »
The New SEC Whistleblower Rule
In a blow to the efforts of internal compliance, the SEC will let corporate whistle-blowers collect a percentage of penalties when they report financial wrongdoing, even when they bypass companies’ internal complaint systems. “For an agency with limited resources like the SEC, it is critical to be able to leverage the resources of people who … Read more »
Will Cash Incentives for Whistleblowing Undermine Compliance Programs?
Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provides an expanded whistleblower program that allows the whistleblower to get part of the money paid to the SEC for the violation. After several years of encouraging the development of internal complaint hotlines and compliance programs, Congress seems to now be encouraging a … Read more »
Corporate Compliance after Dodd-Frank: Dealing with Whistleblower Bounties
Securities Docket produced a webcast “Corporate Compliance after Dodd-Frank: One Voice; How Many Masters?” that focused on the SEC’s proposed new whistleblower rules and their implications for internal controls and compliance programs, investigations, self-reporting incentives and employer/employee relations, including executive compensation and employee reporting responsibilities. The panelists: Byron Egan, Partner Jackson Walker L.L.P. Jeffrey Sone, … Read more »
Proposed Rules for Implementing the Whistleblower Provisions From Dodd-Frank
The SEC has released the text of its proposed new rules for implementing the whistleblower provisions of Section 21F of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934: Release No. 34-63237. In fashioning these proposed rules, the Commission has considered and weighed a number of potentially competing interests that are presented in implementing the statute. Among them … Read more »
Save Your Company, Save Yourself
What happens when you have a business disaster on your resume? Maybe listing an Enron or WorldCom would not be so bad. Those companies are big enough that you may not be tainted by the corporate fraud. Unless you ended up in handcuffs. As the company gets smaller, you’re more likely to get caught in … Read more »