The IRS issued its annual end-of-year whistleblower reports for Fiscal Year 2019, showing enforcement activity, whistleblower awards, administrative priorities and issues, and other information. The report shows that in FY 2019 the IRS granted 181 awards totaling $120,305,278. This reward represents 19.5% of total amounts collected by the IRS as a result of whistleblowers exposing…
FY 2019 SEC, CFTC Whistleblower Reports
The SEC and CFTC issued their annual end-of-year whistleblower reports for Fiscal Year 2019, showing enforcement activity, whistleblower awards, regulatory proposals, and other information. The reports show that in FY 2019 the SEC granted $60 million in awards to eight different whistleblowers who reported information about corporate securities frauds. The CFTC, meanwhile, granted $15 million to…
SEC Chair: Whistleblower Awards Will Not Be Capped
SEC Chairman Jay Clayton told U.S. legislators today at a Senate hearing that the SEC will not seek to impose any ceilings on the amount of a reward that the agency can grant to a whistleblower for reporting securities violations. A public hearing had been scheduled by the SEC in October to announce amendments to the…
Government Sides With Whistleblower: B & H Foto Committed Tax Fraud For 13 Years
The State of New York took over a previously-sealed whistleblower suit today alleging that B&H Foto & Electronics Corp. — the nation’s largest non-chain photo and video equipment retailer — committed a sales tax fraud for over 13 years by failing to pay tens of millions of dollars it received from electronics manufacturers to reimburse…
Novel Whistleblower Suit: Corporation Failed to Create Web Site For State That Blind People Could Use
A California court has allowed a qui tam (whistleblower) suit under the California False Claims Act (CFCA) to advance agianst against Conduent, Inc. for failung to create a reservations website for the State that blind people could access and utilize. Click here to read the decision.
House of Representatives Advances Bill to Enact Accounting Board Whistleblower Reward Program
The House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that would establish a whistleblower program for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in order to expose fraudulent accounting. The program, modelled after the program at the Securities and Exchange Commission, would protect accountants, auditors and others who report fraudulent accounting from retaliation, and —…
Whistleblower Suit Proceeds Against JP Morgan for Late Payments to New York
In an important court ruling today, New York State Supreme Court Justice James d’Auguste denied a motion by JP Morgan Chase & Co. to throw out a whistleblower suit that could force it to pay millions of dollars to New York. When JP Morgan Chase & Co. ignored legal deadlines to transfer tens of millions dollars…
Cybersecurity Whistleblower Suit against Cisco Settled for $8.6 Million
Cisco Systems is being forced to pay $8.6 million to settle a False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuit alleging that it sold video surveillance technology that it knew had a significant security flaw to federal, state and local government agencies. The money will be paid to the federal government as well as 15 states and the…
U.S. False Claims Act Settlements Exceed $750 Million in First Half of 2019
An analysis of figures issued by the U.S. Department of Justice shows that in the first half of this year (2019), the U.S. government has recovered $750 million under the False Claims Act – largely by whistleblowers using that Act to uncover fraud in the health care industry. Under the False Claims Act, whistleblowers can…
Urban Institue: Clarify When False Claims Act Can Be Used Against FHA Lenders & Servicers
Researchers from the Urban Institute wrote an opinion piece urging the federal government to clarify and/or narrow the types of violations committed by Federal Housing Administration lenders that can be subject to enforcement through the False Claims Act. In the article, they argue that recent ramped-up False Claims Act enforcement efforts had resulted in an…