A Victim of the Scheme Helps to Shut It Down
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 1, 2023) — A whistleblower who shared in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission awards totaling $18 million was represented in the matter by The Employment Law Group® law firm.
The SEC’s recent award announcement didn’t disclose details of the enforcement action that prompted the payout, except to say that it had ended a fraudulent scheme. By law the agency can’t reveal the identity of its whistleblowers, which limits the information it provides about underlying misdeeds.
TELG also isn’t identifying the whistleblower, who was awarded a seven-figure amount and “significantly contributed” to the enforcement action, according to the SEC.
“Our client was a victim of this brazen scheme, and she played an important role in shutting it down,” said R. Scott Oswald, managing principal of The Employment Law Group. “Due in part to her diligent research, and the detailed documentation she provided, tens of millions of dollars are now being returned to the investors who were swindled. This outcome shows that SEC whistleblowers don’t always need to be insiders — they just need to have unique information that can help to set the direction of an investigation, or to speed it up.”
Under the Dodd-Frank Act, whistleblowers who report investment-related fraud can receive a reward that ranges in value from 10 percent to 30 percent of the money collected by the SEC, as long as the recovery is more than $1 million. In this case, the $18 million award total indicates that the SEC will collect between $60 million and $180 million.
The SEC’s whistleblower awards are funded by penalties and don’t reduce paybacks to investors. People with knowledge of fraud must follow a special procedure to be eligible for an award, and then must monitor the SEC’s enforcement actions closely, often for years, before filing an application for an award. An experienced attorney can help to guide whistleblowers through this complex process, which may include competing applications from other award claimants — as this case did — and several rounds of consideration before an award becomes final.
The TELG-represented whistleblower submitted her original tip in 2015.
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Case Information
Whistleblower Award Proceeding, File No. 2023-30
Final order issued on January 18, 2023 by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
Redacted order available here
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About The Employment Law Group
The Employment Law Group® law firm represents whistleblowers and employees who stand up to wrongdoing in the workplace. Based in Washington, D.C., the firm takes cases nationwide.
