A recent whistleblower suit could impact a company’s deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”) and lead to further investigation by DOJ and even additional penalties.

A whistleblower suit was recently filed in the New York State Supreme Court against Connecticut-based Freepoint Commodities alleging insider trading violations and retaliation. The lawsuit comes after Freepoint entered into a three-year DPA with DOJ in 2023 for FCPA violations. The DPA stemmed from an alleged conspiracy to bribe a state-owned company in South America. Under the DPA, Freepoint was required to pay over $98 million in criminal fines, substantively enhance its corporate governance and compliance program, as well as report to DOJ any subsequent felony violations of law.

Freepoint resolved a parallel civil enforcement action by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) in 2023 for charges that Freepoint engaged in unlawful misconduct to obtain non-public competitive fuel oil cargo bidding information as well as confidential market intelligence regarding shipping and negotiation activities. The CFTC ordered Freepoint to pay a civil monetary penalty of $61 million and disgorgement of over $30 million. The settlement with the CFTC acknowledged and credited a portion of the criminal fine and forfeiture made by DOJ.

Whistleblower Suit

A former Freepoint senior analysist, Andrew Martin, alleges in his whistleblower suit that two Freepoint superiors urged and pressured him to conduct illegal insider...

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