Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Archives

SEC Whistleblower Attorney: Benefits of Experienced Representation

SEC Whistleblower Program In its short history, the SEC Whistleblower Program has already awarded more than $154 million to whistleblowers. Under the program, the SEC will issue awards to whistleblowers if they provide original information that leads to successful enforcement actions with total penalties in excess of $1 million. A whistleblower is eligible to receive … Continued

Zuckerman Law Whistleblower Lawyer default blog post Image

SEC Whistleblower Attorneys Release eBook SEC Whistleblower Program: Tips from SEC Whistleblower Attorneys to Maximize an SEC Whistleblower Award

Zuckerman Law, one of the nation’s leading law firms representing whistleblowers in whistleblower rewards and whistleblower retaliation claims, has released a free eBook about the SEC’s Whistleblower Program. The SEC Whistleblower Program: Tips from SEC Whistleblower Attorneys to Maximize an SEC Whistleblower Award, which is available for download here, offers practical tips for whistleblowers and … Continued

Whistleblower Attorney Dallas Hammer Interviewed by Bloomberg About Dodd-Frank Protected Whistleblowing

Bloomberg Law Securities Law Daily interviewed whistleblower attorney Dallas Hammer about the scope of protected whistleblower under the Dodd-Frank Act for an article titled High Court Petitioned on Whistle-Blower Retaliation Issue. The article reports that Digital Realty Trust is requesting Supreme Court review of a Ninth Circuit decision holding that the Dodd-Frank Act protects internal whistleblowing. The Ninth Circuit’s decision is … Continued

Ponzi Scheme SEC Whistleblower Attorneys

SEC Cracking Down on Ponzi Schemes On April 14, 2017, a federal judge granted a bid by the SEC to force former head fund manager Francisco Illarramendi to pay nearly $27 million for his role in a Ponzi scheme. According to the court’s order, Illarramendi was the mastermind behind an elaborate five-year scheme to … Continued

Ninth Circuit Holds that Dodd-Frank Protects Internal Whistleblowing

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently joined the Second Circuit in holding in Somers v. Digital Realty Trust that whistleblowers are protected under the Dodd-Frank Act if they report securities-law violations internally and not to the Securities and Exchange Commission. By contrast, the Fifth Circuit, the only other federal circuit to weigh … Continued

Accounting Fraud SEC Whistleblower Attorneys

Accounting Fraud SEC Enforcement Action On March 3, 2017, the SEC announced that homebuilding company Desarrolladora Homex S.A.B. de C.V. (Homex) has agreed to settle charges that it used accounting fraud to overstate its revenues by approximately $3.3 billion during a three-year period. According to the SEC’s complaint, the company reported fake sales of more … Continued

SEC Awards for Disclosures of Foreign Bribery or FCPA Violations

SEC Awards for Disclosures of Foreign Bribery or FCPA Violations Under the SEC Whistleblower Program, the SEC Whistleblower Office will issue awards to whistleblowers who provide original information that leads to enforcement actions with sanctions in excess of $1 million. A whistleblower is eligible to receive an award of between 10-30 percent of the total sanctions … Continued

5 Tips for SEC Whistleblowers and Lessons Learned from SEC Whistleblower Awards

Lessons Learned from SEC Whistleblower Award Determinations The SEC Whistleblower Program has awarded more than $150 million to 42 whistleblowers. The orders announcing the awards, while sparse, offer critical guidance on how to: (1) recover an award; and (2) maximize the award percentage. These five lessons are drawn from those orders and our experience representing … Continued

SEC Whistleblower Program: What is the SEC Form TCR?

Submitting Information to the SEC Whistleblower Program The SEC Form TCR (Tip, Complaint, or Referral) is the form whistleblowers and their attorneys use to submit tips to the SEC Whistleblower Office. Under the Dodd-Frank SEC Whistleblower Program, a whistleblower who provides original information that leads to an enforcement action with total civil penalties in excess of … Continued

SEC Whistleblower Lawyer Dallas Hammer Quoted About SEC Whistleblower Program

A Bloomberg BNA article titled SEC Whistle-Blower Awards: No Guarantees quotes SEC whistleblower lawyer Dallas Hammer’s insights about factors that cause an SEC whistleblower reward claim to succeed or fail. Under the Dodd-Frank whistleblower program, the SEC granted awards to 37 whistleblowers. In the article, Hammer observes that some applicants’ claims for awards fail because whistleblowers mistakenly assumed that they … Continued

New Administration Should Avoid Gutting the SEC’s Remarkably Successful Whistleblower Reward Program

Press reports indicate that a repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act is among the top policy priorities of the Trump Administration. Though there are provisions in Dodd-Frank that may warrant reexamination, one aspect of the law that should not be repealed is the whistleblower-reward program, which has been very successful. Just this week, the Securities and … Continued

SEC Advocates Broad Construction of Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Protection Provision

SEC Advocates Broad Construction of Whistleblower Protection Provision in Dodd-Frank Act The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) continues to advocate a broad construction of the anti-retaliation provision of the Dodd-Frank Act. In its amicus curiae brief in Danon v. Vanguard Group, Inc., the SEC argues that: Section 21F of the Exchange Act is ambiguous regarding who qualifies as … Continued