Sky Blog
The SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) recently hosted the 2024 SEC Speaks conference in Washington, DC. During the event, SEC leaders, including the Chair, commissioners, and senior staffers, shared their views about key priorities and trends in the enforcement …
Corporate boards will be called upon to renew their oversight of corporate compliance following the recent announcement of several new corporate fraud enforcement initiatives by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Most notably, these include a new whistleblower program and …
Plaintiffs bringing retaliation claims under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act do not have to prove their employers’ “retaliatory intent,” only that their whistleblowing activity contributed to their termination, according to a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a unanimous opinion …
On January 16, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a settled enforcement action against JP Morgan Securities, LLC (“JPMS”) for violating Rule 21F-17(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.[1] Like other recent 21F-17(a) cases brought by the …
On January 10, 2024, Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), announced the creation of that office’s Whistleblower Pilot Program (Program). This initiative provides notice of the requirements for individuals who wish to self-disclose criminal …
On November 14, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC” or “Commission”) Division of Enforcement (“Division”) announced its enforcement results for fiscal year (“FY”) 2023.[1] Disgorgement and penalties were the second highest in the SEC’s history at just …
A number of regulations encourage whistleblowers to provide tips on corporate financial misconduct. For example, as a part of the 2011 Dodd-Frank Act, Congress enacted a whistleblower program to reward eligible individuals with up to 30 percent of the monetary …
In July and August 2023, the SEC filed 84 actions and the CFTC filed 16, against a combined total of 176 defendants and respondents. (These figures exclude follow-on actions, bars and suspensions.) The actions include public company disclosure and crypto …
The U.S. Treasury Department and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are in the midst of drafting regulations to implement the anti-money laundering (AML) whistleblower program. The program, established in 2021 by the AML Act of 2020 and reformed in …
Under Chair Gary Gensler, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been on a transparency rampage – proposing extensive new disclosure obligations on public companies, activist investors, private funds, and (maybe soon) so-called “unicorn” startups. …
The Securities and Exchange Commission today [November 15] announced that it filed 760 total enforcement actions in fiscal year 2022, a 9 percent increase over the prior year. These included 462 new, or “stand alone,” enforcement actions, a 6.5 percent …
How do a few dozen SEC and CFTC staffers sift through the avalanche of tips submitted under Dodd-Frank whistleblower “bounty” programs to determine which ones to investigate?
The answer: They don’t.
Using new data obtained from both agencies under the …
On April 12, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or the “Commission”) announced settled charges against David Hansen, the co-founder and former Chief Information Officer of a Las Vegas technology company, for violations of Rule 21F-17(a). In settling the …
On October 23, 2019, the European Parliament and the European Council adopted the Whistleblower Protection Directive (Directive) to set a minimum standard for the protections EU member states must provide to whistleblowers.
For the first time, whistleblowers are protected under …
On September 23, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved changes to its highly successful Dodd-Frank Act whistleblower program in a 3-2 vote [1]. The program has resulted in over $2.5 billion in penalties against public companies, $750 million …
Columbia Law Professor John C. Coffee, Jr.’s Corporate Crime and Punishment delivers a hard-hitting and provocative analysis of the securities law enforcement landscape and the choices that lie ahead. With SEC senior staff changes probable in any new administration, Coffee’s …
A lively debate has been sparked both among the public and scholars about the protection of informants, prompted in part by the whistleblowers who uncovered the scandals that recently attracted so much interest in the media, including Cambridge Analytica, …
On October 23, the Securities and Exchange Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to adopt proposed amendments to the rules governing its whistleblower bounty program. The most controversial proposed amendments are to Rule 21F-6, which governs the way the …