Sean McKessy

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On November 17, 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Whistleblower released its 2014 Annual Report to Congress. According to the report, 2014 was a historic year for the SEC Whistleblower program in terms of both the number and dollar amount of whistleblower awards. The SEC issued whistleblower awards to more individuals in 2014 than in all previous years combined.

The SEC whistleblower award program was created to encourage whistleblowers to report securities violations committed by publicly traded companies.  When a whistleblower tip is filed with the SEC and leads to successful enforcement action netting penalties of at least US$1 million the whistleblower who filed the tip can be awarded between 10 per cent and 30 per cent of money collected by the SEC.

The SEC’s report also revealed that, under its whistleblower award program, it had made payouts to nine people in 2013-14.
Continue Reading SEC Whistleblower program has historic year

Washington, D.C. Feburary 20, 2014. Today the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an extensive brief and position statement before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit urging the court to fully protect whistleblowers who make internal disclosures exposing fraud against investors and other violations of securities laws.  Linked here are a copy of…

Under a new program championed by the National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) to reduce securities fraud, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today announced its first whistleblower award of nearly $50,000.

The SEC’s announcement is the mark of success for its new Whistleblower Program, which was established one year ago after passage of the Dodd-Frank Act.

So far, the sky has not fallen. That’s not to say there isn’t some curious weather activity.
Now that the SEC has logged at least seven full months of the Dodd Frank whistleblower program, it’s worth taking a moment for a brief status check on what we have learned so far.
Continue Reading The Sky Has Not Yet Fallen