Category: News

Corporate Policing and Whistleblowing Whistleblowing has traditionally involved insider reports of corporate wrongdoing by employees of a business. A recent whistleblower lawsuit may signal the start of a new era in the False Claims Act as businesses begin to turn in their unethical competition to the U.S. Government in order to preserve fair competition in...

Ontario Securities Commission Accepting Whistleblower Tips Since the Ontario Securities Commission opened its whistleblower program to tips, at least four individuals have filed complaints against one of Canada’s largest private equity firms according to the Wall Street Journal. Officials at the Ontario Securities Commission and a unit of the Toronto Police Service have inquired about...

Cybersecurity: A Hot Topic The SEC recently released a Risk Alert on cybersecurity produced by the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) this week. The Risk Alert details improvements and weaknesses observed during the National Examination Program staff’s examination of 75 broker-dealers, investment advisers and investment companies conducted between September 2015 and June 2016....

Citigroup Accused of Spoofing In January, the CFTC settled its first civil enforcement action against a bank for spoofing when Citigroup agreed to pay a $25 million fine for sending orders into the U.S. Treasury futures market with the intent of canceling them. Now, the CFTC has entered into its first non-prosecution agreements ever, making...

FCPA Enforcement Action Against Halliburton At the end of July, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a $29.2 million settlement against Halliburton for payments made to a local Angola company in the course of winning lucrative oilfield services contracts. The corporate settlement was the first under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) since President...

“An entirely new area of healthcare fraud” The Department of Justice (DOJ) is expected to investigate electronic health record (EHR) software providers for health care fraud following allegations against a major player that resulted in a $155 million settlement under the False Claims Act for skirting meaningful use regulations. In a recently released video, a...

SEC Enforcement Impacted by Supreme Court The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision in Kokesh v. SEC published at the beginning of June, held that a five year statute of limitations applies to any claim for disgorgement. The decision could limit the amount of fines issued by the SEC and will be an important one...

Whistleblower Award in the Millions The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently agreed to provide approximately $2.5 million to a SEC whistleblower that worked for a government agency. The SEC whistleblower both provided the initial information that led to the opening of the case but also provided critical documents and testimony that accelerated the pace...