Whistleblower

The Texas-based trial law firm McKool Smith has landed two experienced whistleblower (“qui tam”) litigators, Brent Rushforth and Stuart Rennert, from Day Pitney – and has launched a new whistleblower litigation practice that focuses o

Only a few days ago, the CFTC named Vincente Martinez to be the first head of its Whistleblower Office. Now, the SEC has made a key appointment to its Whistleblower Office, naming Jane A. Norberg to be Deputy Chief of the Office of the Whistleblower, which oversees the agency’s whistleblower program. 

If you’re a whistleblower and you sent the SEC a tip, complaint, or referral that led the SEC to open an investigation or file an action after July 21, 2010, resulting in monetary sanctions exceeding $1 million, you may be entitled to an award. The SEC has just posted “Notices of Covered Action” for each SEC action where a whistleblower award may be payable. 

Research from the Ethics Resource Center (ERC) reveals that over the past two years, 45 percent of U.S. employees observed a violation of the law or ethics standards at their places of employment. Reporting of this wrongdoing was at an all-time high – 65 percent – but so too was retaliation against employees who blew the whistle: More than one in five employees who reported misconduct they saw experienced some form of retaliation in return.

Thanks to the Dodd-Frank Act, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission now has a Whistleblower Office, which is intended to provide an avenue for the public to help catch misconduct in the markets and improve the CFTC’s ability to be an effective regulator.

As we noted earlier today, the 2011 Fulbright & Jaworski Litigation Trends Survey finds that corporations typically expect more internal investigations involving their companies and believe that their companies will

The U.S. has partially intervened in a lawsuit under the False Claims Act against Halifax Hospital Medical Center and Halifax Staffing Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.   

With its new whistleblower program now officially effective, the SEC has launched a new webpage for people to report a violation of the federal securities laws and apply for a financial award. 

Jordan A. Thomas, a 16 year veteran of the federal government, has left the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to join Labaton Sucharow LLP and launch its Whistleblower Representation Practice.  Labaton Sucharow says that it is "the first and only law firm to recruit a senior SEC attorney to lead a national whistleblower practice focused exclusively on representing individuals who report violations of the federal securities laws." 

Under federal law, a whistleblower (a “Relator”) is entitled to 15 percent to 25 percent of any amounts recovered by the government as a result of a qui tam action filed by the Relator (the “Relator’s Share”). As we have noted (Hello, Verizon.