DiCello Levitt Expands Whistleblower Practice With Preeminent SEC Whistleblower Team

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.

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May 21, 2014
CFTC Announces First Whistleblower Award
Labaton Sucharow
The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) announced on Tuesday the first award paid under the CFTC Whistleblower Program launched in 2010.  Like the SEC Whistleblower Program, the CFTC Whistleblower Program was created by the Dodd-Frank Act, and allows eligible individuals to receive a monetary award if they provide original information that leads to a successful CFTC enforcement action resulting...
Articles & Perspectives
May 15, 2014
SEC Wins Fraud and Insider Trading Trial Against Texas Investors
Labaton Sucharow
The SEC secured a major trial victory this week after a federal jury in Manhattan found Texas investors Sam and Charles Wyly liable for all fraud and insider trading claims brought by the agency. The SEC successfully proved that the brothers (the latter of whom died before the case was brought to trial)  had constructed an elaborate system of...
Articles & Perspectives
May 5, 2014
Is it a Crime? What Happens When Whistleblowers Report Potentially Criminal Misconduct to the SEC
Labaton Sucharow
The SEC, although it wields enormous power in the securities markets, has a built-in limitation on its authority: it’s a civil law enforcement agency, meaning that it can charge and penalize wrongdoers for civil violations of the securities laws, but it can’t prosecute them for crimes or put them in jail. However, as SEC Chair...
Articles & Perspectives
May 1, 2014
Guest Post: The SEC Could Find New Uses for an Old Law
Financial Times
Articles & Perspectives
May 1, 2014
The SEC Could Find New Uses for an Old Law
Labaton Sucharow
One of the key messages from the SEC enforcement staff this year is that it intends to expand its enforcement arsenal, both by using newer laws and by finding innovative ways to use older laws. In a guest post published today on Financial Times’ Alphaville blog, I focus on two such provisions – Sections 20(a)...
Articles & Perspectives
May 1, 2014
Cybersecurity – Growing Technological Threats Raise New Issues for Investors and the SEC
Labaton Sucharow
In recent months, the Heartbleed bug and massive data breaches like those experienced by Target have drawn increased attention to cybersecurity, and the need to better protect the almost unfathomable amount of sensitive data stored electronically in the U.S. Although the securities laws may not always immediately come to mind when considering such high-tech threats,...
Articles & Perspectives
April 29, 2014
Financial Whistleblowing on the Rise in Europe
Labaton Sucharow
As we’ve noted in previous posts, the SEC Whistleblower Program has resulted in a sharp increase in the amount of actionable information provided to the agency, with more than 3000 whistleblower tips received in 2013 alone. Now, reports from the Europe and the United Kingdom – which have experienced their own rash of financial scandals in recent years...
Articles & Perspectives
April 25, 2014
Second Circuit Considers Bounds of Insider Trading Laws
Labaton Sucharow
n recent years, one of the top priorities for the SEC and the Department of Justice, which prosecutes criminal violations of the federal securities laws, has been cracking down on insider trading, particularly by hedge funds that use confidential information to gain an investing edge. As many recent cases – including the successful prosecution of...
Articles & Perspectives
April 23, 2014
Employers May Come to Regret Seeking Narrow Definition of “Whistleblower”
Labaton Sucharow
One of the most important unsettled legal questions for SEC whistleblowers and their counsel is whether the SEC Whistleblower Program’s anti-retaliation provisions apply to individuals who have reported misconduct internally, but have not yet blown the whistle to the SEC. We recently published an article in the National Law Journal on this issue, arguing that...
Articles & Perspectives
April 21, 2014
New SEC Task Force Fights Financial Fraud And Encourages Collaboration with Whistleblowers
Labaton Sucharow
Last month, I attended SEC Speaks, an annual conference in which the SEC’s leadership provides insight into the agency’s priorities, projects and plans for the future. One of the key initiatives highlighted this year was the SEC’s new Financial Reporting and Audit Task Force. Comprised of SEC lawyers and accountants from around the country, the...
Articles & Perspectives
April 19, 2014
Opinion: Employers May Come to Regret Seeking Narrow Definition of “Whistleblower”
The National Law Journal
Articles & Perspectives
April 18, 2014
Senator Grassley Announces the Creation of a Congressional Whistleblower Caucus
Labaton Sucharow
Last week, we provided an update on Senator Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) efforts to strengthen the IRS Whistleblower Program and expedite the processing of IRS Whistleblower claims. Now, Senator Grassley – a longtime advocate for whistleblower rights – has announced a new plan to create a “Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus,” to “help bring attention to the...
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

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