SEC Reforms Whistleblower Reforms

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The Securities and Exchange Commission quietly voted last week to expand the ways that whistleblowers might win awards for reporting misconduct to regulators, and reversed previous rule changes from the Trump Administration that capped especially large awards. Neither development is a surprise, nor should they be particularly disruptive to the internal reporting programs that corporate…

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On Whistleblowers and Access to Data

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An interesting bit of whistleblower retaliation news for those who follow the subject: the co-founder of a cyberfraud prevention company that itself imploded in fraud two years ago has agreed to pay $97,000 to settle charges that he obstructed a corporate whistleblower by restricting that employee’s access to internal systems.  The settlement, announced Tuesday by…

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Study: Whistleblower Awards Cut Fraud Risk

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Compliance professionals have another neato academic study to start your week, this one finding that the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act reduce the risk of accounting fraud at publicly traded firms by as much as 22 percent. Measuring the effect of Dodd-Frank’s whistleblower provisions has long been tricky business, because the law went into…

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CFTC’s $200M Whistleblower Award

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Here’s news that will leave whistleblowers speechless: the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission just gave out the largest whistleblower award in U.S. history, a $200 million windfall reportedly going to a former Deutsche Bank executive who provided crucial help in unraveling the LIBOR rate-fixing scandal. The CFTC won’t confirm the whistleblower’s identity, but the person…

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$1M Whistleblower Award to 3 Compliance Officers

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Three gutsy and persistent compliance professionals are all a bit richer today, after the Securities and Exchange Commission gave them a joint whistleblower award of more than $1 million for helping the agency to prosecute misconduct at their firm. As usual with SEC whistleblower awards, we don’t know much about the particulars — including who…

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Another Interesting SEC Award

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Earlier this week the Securities and Exchange Commission awarded $28 million to the person who blew the whistle on Panasonic Corp.’s extensive FCPA misconduct, which the company settled with U.S. regulators in 2018.  And why is this particular award so interesting? Because it’s one of those rare occasions when compliance professionals can see how an…

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An Interesting Whistleblower Award

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Here’s something you don’t see every day: two recipients of a whistleblower award from the Securities and Exchange Commission fighting over how to split $22 million between them. The SEC announced the award on Monday, and as usual, we know little about the case itself. Apparently the misconduct happened at a financial firm, which at…

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AML Reform and Whistleblowers

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I try to be as cynical as possible about Congress, but this week may be one of those rare times when lawmakers actually do something intelligent. They’re poised to overhaul the nation’s anti-money laundering laws in a dramatic way, with a potentially huge gift to compliance officers to boot. That overhaul is the Anti-Money Laundering…

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SEC Updates Whistleblower Awards Program

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The Securities and Exchange Commission has, at long last, updated the rules for its whistleblower awards program. Among the changes: a presumption toward more generous awards at the lower end of the pay scale, restrictions on people who abuse the tipster process too often, and faster disposal of would-be tips that don’t meet the awards…

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Finally, SEC Voting on Whistleblower Reforms

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The Securities and Exchange Commission will vote next week on reforms to its whistleblower rewards program, more than two years after the reforms were first proposed, and which still have the potential to complicate your pursuit of a strong speak-up culture. The vote is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 2. In theory compliance professionals will be…

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