LANDMARK LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST SEC TO PROTECT ALL WHISTLEBLOWERS

Articles & Perspectives

With more than a century of combined experience prosecuting some of the most complex securities frauds in history, our team possesses expansive knowledge on topics ranging from legal and regulatory frameworks, corporate governance and ethics, to auditing reform, in-house compliance systems and internal investigations. As a result, we are regularly called upon both to author and comment on sophisticated topics for major media and, as bloggers for our own audience, to examine top-of-mind issues with a fresh and substantive perspective.

Search
May 16, 2016
$3.5 Million Awarded to Whistleblower for Bolstering Investigation
Labaton Sucharow
Last Friday, the SEC announced it had granted a $3.5 million whistleblower award to an individual who provided additional information that supported an ongoing SEC investigation. The award, one of the largest granted to a single whistleblower in 2016, involves a unique set of circumstances and highlights the potential impact of whistleblowers who come forward...
Articles & Perspectives
April 25, 2016
We are Connected: The Global Reach of the Whistleblower
Labaton Sucharow
Last week, I was fortunate to travel to Australia to discuss corporate ethics and whistleblower issues with various economic, business, and political leaders. I also had the outstanding opportunity to address business and law students on the crucial importance of utilizing ethical conduct as a guiding principal for one’s career. As I have previously discussed,...
Articles & Perspectives
March 24, 2016
Confidentiality: The Key Factor in Empowering Whistleblowers
Labaton Sucharow
In recent years, the SEC reported a number of important achievements regarding its whistleblower program, including a record number of tips from across the globe; increasingly large sanctions actions against industry giants; and, a more diverse pool of whistleblowers, such as outside analysts, compliance executives and officers and directors. While these developments are encouraging, we...
Articles & Perspectives
March 9, 2016
SEC Awards $2 Million to Whistleblowers: Increased Tips Yield Results
Labaton Sucharow
Yesterday, the SEC awarded nearly $2 million to three whistleblowers. Approximately $1.8 million, the largest of the awards, was granted to a whistleblower who voluntarily provided original information that allowed the SEC to open an investigation and continued to provide information during the investigation. Two other whistleblowers, who provided information after the investigation started, each...
Articles & Perspectives
March 8, 2016
A Victory Lap for the SEC
Labaton Sucharow
Last month, a jury sided with the SEC in a closely watched case, finding two stockbrokers liable for insider trading in connection with a $1.2 billion IBM acquisition. Though prosecutors had previously dropped the criminal case against the brokers, the SEC charged on, ending in an impressive court victory.The Commission is becoming expert at having—and...
Articles & Perspectives
March 2, 2016
Newly Introduced WARN Act Offers Whistleblowers Critical Support
Labaton Sucharow
Last week, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) and Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced the Whistleblower Augmented Reward and Non-Retaliation Act of 2016 (WARN Act), a groundbreaking legislation that would encourage corporate whistleblowers, particularly those in the banking sector to come forward with enhanced protections, providing a safe passage that the industry has never before seen....
Articles & Perspectives
February 29, 2016
SEC Speaks 2016: Commission to Pursue Cases Involving Illegal Confidentiality Agreements
Labaton Sucharow
Earlier this month, at the SEC’s annual SEC Speaks conference, leaders of the Commission gathered to address a wide range of topics, including various plans to carry out the rulemaking agenda established under Dodd-Frank and the SEC’s efforts to uncover harmful practices in an increasingly complex market.Sharon Binger, Director of the SEC’s Philadelphia regional office, addressed the...
Articles & Perspectives
January 20, 2016
New Report Offers Insights Into SEC Enforcement
Labaton Sucharow
Last week, Cornerstone Research released a new report, SEC Enforcement Activity Against Public Company Defendants, examining SEC actions initiated between fiscal years 2010 and 2015. Utilizing data from the SEC Enforcement Empirical Database, the report offers some detailed insights into SEC enforcement actions in recent years, such as:  The number of enforcement actions continues to increase. In...
Articles & Perspectives
January 15, 2016
FINRA Priorities Signal Important Shift in Industry
Labaton Sucharow
Last week, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) released its regulatory and examination priorities for 2016. FINRA’s letter highlights five areas for examination at brokerage houses and financial advisory firms, including standards of ethical behavior, alignment of firm and customer interests, and the management of conflicts of interest. FINRA’s chairman also stated intentions to specifically examine the...
Articles & Perspectives
January 7, 2016
The High Price of Secrets: The Whistleblower Revolution
Labaton Sucharow
Why the SEC Whistleblower Program Works March 20, 2020 Content has been updated In a recent piece on the FCPA Blog, I discuss how the SEC Whistleblower Program is revolutionizing the securities industry. The evidence is apparent in recent enforcement actions, such as a landmark case against JPMorgan announced just last month. The action, in which our client...
Articles & Perspectives
January 5, 2016
The Crucial Work Ahead: Building Ethical Corporate Cultures
Labaton Sucharow
In our ongoing work to protect individual whistleblowers and bring wrongdoing to light, we never lose sight of our fundamental goal: to help establish a culture in which corporations no longer retaliate against those who raise concerns about misconduct.I was reminded of the importance of communicating this goal while serving as a panelist at the...
Articles & Perspectives
December 18, 2015
Groundbreaking Enforcement Action Against JP Morgan
Today, the SEC announced that two J.P. Morgan wealth management subsidiaries agreed to pay $267 million to settle charges in an enforcement action initiated by information brought to the SEC by a [Jordan Thomas][prior firm][‘s] client, a J.P. Morgan executive. The enforcement is one of the largest and highest profile actions initiated by an SEC...
Articles & Perspectives
Featured
December 2, 2019
Understanding the Factors that Determine an SEC Whistleblower Award: Opportunities & Outcomes
Jordan A. Thomas As the SEC Whistleblower Program grows in awareness ($387 million in awards to date is pretty good advertising) more and more individuals explore the investor protection initiative that provides eligible whistleblowers monetary incentives and employment protections with the comfort of anonymous reporting. The program has been such an unmitigated success that between...
Articles & Perspectives
July 23, 2019
SEC Whistleblower Program Surpasses $2 Billion in Monetary Sanctions With Latest Whistleblower Award
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) awarded a half-million dollars “to an overseas whistleblower whose expeditious reporting helped the Commission bring a successful enforcement action.” The Commission’s press release further reports that, with this and other recent enforcement actions brought as a result of tips from SEC whistleblowers, the SEC Whistleblower Program has yielded more than $2...
Articles & Perspectives
July 24, 2018
Private: Dashboard: Fast Facts from the ECI’s 2018 State of Ethics & Compliance in the Workplace
Corporate Whistleblower Watch
47% of employees said that within the last 12 months they observed conduct that either violated organizational standards or the law. 69% of employees reported the misconduct that they observed. 44% of employees who reported misconduct experienced retaliation, double the figure in 2013. 16% of employees experienced pressure to compromise standards 40% of employees believed...
Articles & Perspectives
Named one of the top whistleblower practices/attorneys in the country by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR and The New Yorker
Thank you for submitting some email to us.