We recently had some interesting news regarding whistleblowers and whistleblowing that I thought compliance professionals should be cognizant of going forward. These matters included a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) bounty award to two whistleblowers which detailed reasons for the award. Additionally, there have also been two enforcement actions brought by the SEC where companies had surreptitiously tried to prevent former employees from whistleblowing to the SEC through craft Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) language.
Whistleblower Bounty Awards
The SEC issued one Order announcing two anonymous whistleblower awards. As noted, the whistleblowers were anonymous as was the company whom they blew the whistle on. Claims Review Staff (“CRS”) had four claimants to evaluate for an award and settled on two of them, Claimants 1 & 2. Claimant 1 was awarded $13 million, and Claimant 2 was awarded $3.3 million. The Order listed six reasons why Claimant 1 was awarded the bulk of the whistleblower bounty. (1) Claimant 1’s tip was the initial source of the investigation; (2) Claimant 1’s tip exposed abuses in (Redacted), that would have been difficult to detect without Claimant 1’s information; (3) Claimant 1 provided the SEC staff with extensive and ongoing assistance during the course of the investigation, including identifying witnesses, including (Redacted) and helping staff understand complex fact patterns and issues related to the matters under investigation; (4) the...
We're hearing from people who say they're still owed thousands of dollars from CJF America. And for the first time in months, WRAL talked with the founder, Courtney Jordan, directly.