What’s Needed to Make the Justice Department’s New Whistleblower Program Work?

By Stephen M. Kohn May 24, 2024 by renholding

On March 7, 2024, in a speech before the American Bar Association, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced a “90-day sprint” to establish a new Justice Department whistleblower program. In her speech, Monaco pointed to other highly successful whistleblower …

Arnold & Porter Discusses SEC Case on Impeding and Retaliating Against Whistleblower

By Jane Norberg, Jonathan Green, Dan Hawke, Christian Schultz and Jennifer McLellan January 4, 2023 by renholding

On November 22, 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) filed an amended securities fraud complaint against Adam Rogas, the former Chief Executive Officer of NS8, Inc. (NS8), alleging that, among things, Rogas engaged in whistleblower impeding …

SEC Adopts Amendments to Its Whistleblower Rules

By Reynolds Holding August 29, 2022 by renholding

On August 26, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted two amendments to the rules governing its whistleblower program. The first amendment expands the circumstances where the SEC can pay whistleblowers for their information and assistance in legal actions not brought …

Paul Weiss Discusses Second Circuit Ruling on Intent Element of a SOX Whistleblower Claim

By Geoffrey R. Chepiga, Andrew J. Ehrlich, Lorin L. Reisner, Audra J. Soloway and Daniel S. Sinnreich August 19, 2022 by renholding

On August 5, 2022, the Second Circuit held that individuals claiming they were terminated in retaliation for protected whistleblower activities under Sarbanes-Oxley must prove that their employer acted with retaliatory intent. Murray v. UBS Securities LLC, No. 20-4202 (2d …

Arnold & Porter Discusses ESG, Disclosure, and Whistleblowing

By Jane Norberg, Robert Azarow, Daniel M. Hawke, Brian D. Israel and Erik Walsh September 29, 2021 by renholding

On August 25, 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York are investigating greenwashing allegations made by the former head of sustainability of Deutsche Bank AG’s …

Whistleblowing Should Be Part of President Biden’s Fight Against Corruption

By Stephen M. Kohn September 15, 2021 by renholding

On June 3, 2021 President Joseph Biden issued a “Memorandum on Establishing the Fight Against Corruption as a Core United States National Security Interest,” (hereinafter “Anti-Corruption Memorandum” or “Memorandum”). In issuing the Memorandum, President Biden placed fighting corruption …

Wilson Sonsini Discusses Bill to Reshape U.S. Antitrust Enforcement

By Stuart Baimel, Beau Buffier, Jonathan Jacobson and Joshua Soven March 3, 2021 by Nisha Chandra

On February 4, Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act (CALERA), which provides for wide-ranging changes to the U.S. antitrust laws.^[1] CALERA follows the release of a report last year by the staff of …

Orrick Discusses SEC’s Recent Whistleblower Program Amendments

By Mike Delikat, Renee B. Phillips and Michael Disotell February 8, 2021 by snehapandya

On January 13, 2021, prominent whistleblower attorney and a principal architect of the Dodd-Frank Act whistleblower program, Jordan A. Thomas, filed a complaint against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) seeking a declaratory judgment that certain …

The Deterrent Effect of Whistleblowing on Insider Trading

By Jacob Raleigh October 23, 2020 by renholding

One of the many significant reforms enacted in The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 was the creation of a whistleblower bounty program within the SEC. The program increased monetary rewards for whistleblowing and provided protections …

Short Sellers and Plaintiffs’ Firms: A Symbiotic Ecosystem

By Joshua Mitts October 14, 2020 by renholding

On October 8, 2020, in In re BofI Securities Litigation, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s finding that the plaintiffs had not adequately alleged loss causation when claiming that BofI Holding portrayed …

The Board’s Marchand/Clovis Reaction Plan

By Michael W. Peregrine December 13, 2019 by renholding

Corporate boards may wish to adopt a plan of action in response to two recent Delaware decisions suggesting a shift in application of the historically director-friendly Caremark[1] standard for board oversight of a company’s compliance systems. Such a plan …

Are Secondhand Internal Whistleblowing Reports Credible?

By Stephen Stubben and Kyle T. Welch November 18, 2019 by renholding

The validity of whistleblower reports based on secondhand information has been called into question by President Trump:

A whistleblower with second hand information? Another Fake News Story! See what was said on the very nice, no pressure, call. Another Witch …

The Potential Rewards for Blowing the Whistle on Wall Street Just Went Up

By Ezra Bronstein August 2, 2019 by renholding

As an incentive to blow the whistle, the Securities and Exchange Commission awards tipsters who supply credible information resulting in successful enforcement actions up to 30 percent of monetary penalties paid by securities violators. The unique features of the program …

Gibson Dunn Offers 2019 Mid-Year Securities Enforcement Update

By Mark K. Schonfeld and Amy Mayer July 24, 2019 by renholding

The first half of 2019 has seen a continuation of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s emphasis on protecting the interests of Main Street investors. Chairman Clayton reiterated these themes in his testimony in May before the Financial Services and General …

Debevoise Discusses SEC’s Record Year for Whistleblowers

By Mary Jo White, Andrew J. Ceresney, Arian M. June, Jonathan R. Tuttle and Ada Fernandez Johnson December 4, 2018 by renholding

On November 15, 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (the “SEC” or the “Commission”) Office of the Whistleblower (the “OWB”) provided its annual report to Congress describing the status of the whistleblower program and touting a “record-breaking year” for …

Internal Whistleblowing’s Counterintuitive Impact on Lawsuits and Settlements

By Stephen Stubben and Kyle T. Welch November 6, 2018 by renholding

While external whistleblowing—reporting misconduct to regulators or members of the media— has captured much attention, the impact of reporting misconduct anonymously to management, known as internal whistleblowing, is relatively unknown. Our new study, Evidence on the Use and Efficacy of …

Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses Hot Topics in Corporate Governance

By Sullivan & Cromwell July 16, 2018 by renholding

Corporate Governance, Surveys, Policies and Reports

Lazard Report Finds Increased Shareholder Activism in Q1 2018: Lazard’s Quarterly Review of Shareholder Activism for Q1 of 2018 found increased activism by shareholders in terms of number of campaigns initiated, board seats

…

How External Whistleblower Rewards Affect Internal Reporting

By Masaki Iwasaki July 6, 2018 by renholding

Does paying employees for blowing the whistle on corporate crime to regulators discourage internal reporting and undermine corporate governance? The answer is not as simple as it might seem. My research shows that, as the amount of reward increases, the …

SEC Proposes Changes to Whistleblower Rule

By Securities and Exchange Commission June 29, 2018 by renholding

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted on June 28, 2018, to propose amendments to the rules governing its whistleblower program. The whistleblower program was established in 2010 to incentivize individuals to report high-quality tips to the Commission and help the

…

Financial Enforcement Actions and the Role of Whistleblowers

By Andrew C. Call, Gerald S. Martin, Nathan Y. Sharp and Jaron H. Wilde June 6, 2018 by renholding

In our recent paper, we investigate the association between employee whistleblowers and outcomes of financial misrepresentation enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ). We examine SEC and DOJ enforcement actions for financial misrepresentation …

1 2 3 Next »

The CLS Blue Sky Blog

Columbia Law School's Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets

whistleblower