A federal appeals court has been asked by Bloomberg Law to reverse its highly unusual order to permanently seal its opinion that denied a whistleblower’s claim for half of a $14 million SEC award.
The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit provided no reasoning for sealing its March opinion in the case of Jamie Doe v. SEC, or for denying Doe’s claim. Doe filed an appeal last year alleging that that the Securities and Exchange Commission improperly denied his claim while giving activist investor Carson Block the full $14 million award in 2022.
The SEC whistleblower program provides anonymity for tipsters and allows all potentially identifying details to be kept from the public. But in this case, all the parties have identified themselves—and outlined all of their legal and factual arguments—in a series of related federal lawsuits.
Doe is actually investor Kevin Barnes, who alleged in this case and others that he and Block co-authored an online report that led to an SEC investigation and fine, and deserved a portion of the award. Even if Barnes hadn’t clearly identified himself as Doe in other court cases, attorneys for Bloomberg Law argued, the public’s right to judicial decisions is paramount.
“In light of the public’s presumptive common law right to access judicial records—which is even stronger when the case arises from government action—this...
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