Author: Jason Coomer

Whistleblower Reward Laws protect employees and former employees. More specifically, SEC Bounty Actions, CFTC Bounty Actions, and other whistleblower reward laws protect individuals who expose illegal conduct. These laws provide employee  whistleblower protections including anonymous reporting, protections to former employees, and allowances to use confidential information.

Employee Whistleblower Protection: Anonymous Reporting

CFTC and SEC Bounty Actions offer an Anonymous Reporting whistleblower protection. This protection allows whistleblowers to expose illegal schemes anonymously through a lawyer. The lawyer verifies the identity of the whistleblower, but the Whistleblower’s identity remains anonymous to the agency and wrongdoers. As such, this protection protects the Whistleblower’s identity from their employer and other employees. Further, it encourages whistleblowers to expose hard to detect fraud because it protects their professional career.

Employee Whistleblower Protection: Former and Retired Employees Retain Their Whistleblower Rights

Many employers require former employees to sign releases when they are terminated and receive severance.  This whistleblower protection prevents employers from forcing employees to sign releases that waive their bounty action whistleblower rights. In fact, the SEC fines companies that attempt to force employees to waive their whistleblower rights.

Former and retired employees retain their bounty action whistleblower rights regardless of the releases they have sign. In fact, if they have signed a release that takes their bounty action whistleblower rights, they should contact a lawyer to review the release.

Whistleblower Protection: Use of Confidential Information

Whistleblower Reward Laws allow whistleblowers to use and take confidential information. This employee whistleblower is narrowly tailored to protect use of confidential information that proves illegal conduct.  The protection extends to trade secret, intellectual property, and other confidential information. Overall, this protection allows employees and former employees to use protected communications and documents to prove bounty actions.

More Information of Bounty Actions and Employee Whistleblower Protections

For more information on bounty action and whistleblower reward employee whistleblower protections, please go to the following webpages: Employee Whistleblower Lawyer, Employee Whistleblowers Can Earn Large Rewards for Exposing Fraud, and Employee Whistleblower Rights

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) uses bounty actions to detect violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). More specifically, the CFTC offers large financial rewards to investors and financial professionals who expose investment fraud schemes. Further, the agency targets futures contract order cancellation fraud and spoofing schemes.  These commodity market manipulation schemes can be the basis of large financial rewards.

What Are Commodity Spoofing Schemes and Commodity Order Fraud Schemes?

A trader “spoofs” when he or she places an order in a futures market with the intention to cancel the order prior to execution. This order fraud manipulates the futures market.  More specifically, the scheme misrepresents supply or demand in order to induce other traders to act in a way beneficial to the spoofer. Systematic spoofing and international order fraud schemes violate the CEA and can be the basis of large bounty actions.

What Commodity Spoofing, Order Fraud, and Market Manipulation Schemes Can Be The Basis of Bounty Actions?

The Commission targets several types of spoofing, order fraud and other market manipulation schemes. More specifically, the CFTC wants information regarding schemes causing artificial market moves.  Most of these schemes involve quick orders and cancellations of futures contracts.

The CFTC specifically targets schemes with conduct such as traders that place and quickly cancel bids and offers in futures contracts in order to benefit other orders and/or positions. Further, schemes where traders quickly place and cancel at or near the best bid or offer. These schemes typically use opposite-side orders.  Additionally, the CFTC target traders who place and cancel multiple orders of the same size repeatedly and simultaneously. Basically, the CFTC targets any scheme designed to cause prices to artificially move.

The CFTC uses its civil authority to charge individuals and companies with spoofing.  The key cases regarding spoofing are In re Tower Research Capital LLC, In re Merrill Lynch Commodities, Inc., In re Mohan, In re Gandhi, CFTC v. Zhao, In re Liew, CFTC v. Sarao, or In re Panther Energy Trading LLC and Coscia.

More Information of Spoofing Bounty Actions and Order Fraud Bounty Actions

For more information on spoofing, order fraud, and market manipulation bounty actions, please go to the following webpages: CFTC Bounty Actions and Commodity Manipulation Schemes Anonymous Rewards.

Whistleblower Reward Laws including the Federal False Claims Act and Bounty Actions collect billions in wealth each year. These laws offer large financial rewards to professionals with specialized knowledge of fraud.  These laws pay rewards based on a percentage of the amount recovered by the government. The government collects over $5 billion annually through these laws and pays large rewards to whistleblowers.

The Federal False Claim Act Collects Over $3 Billion in 2019

The Department of Justice uses the Federal False Claims Act to regulate government purchasing.  More specifically, this Whistleblower Reward Law targets Medicare, TRICARE, and Medicaid fraud. It also targets fraud committed by federal government contractors including defense contractors.

The Federal False Claim Act helps the government recover taxpayer money. The Act serves as the government’s primary civil tool to redress false claims for federal funds and property.  The Act also helps protect our military and first responders by ensuring that government contractors provide equipment. It also protects American businesses and workers by promoting compliance with customs laws, trade agreements, visa requirements, and small business protections. The Act also protects other critical government programs ranging from the provision of disaster relief funds to farming subsidies.

Since amendments to the law in 1986, the federal government increasingly uses this law collecting over $62 billion. Further, this law brought in more than $3 billion in recoveries in 2019. Use of this law will continue into the future.

Whistleblowers Can Earn Between 15% to 30% of Recovered Funds through the Federal False Claims Act

In 1986, Congress strengthened the Act by increasing incentives for whistleblowers to file lawsuits alleging false claims on behalf of the government.  These whistleblower, or qui tam, actions comprise a significant percentage of the False Claims Act cases that are filed.  If the government prevails in a qui tam action, the whistleblower, also known as the relator, typically receives a portion of the recovery ranging between 15 and 30 percent.  Whistleblowers filed 633 qui tam suits in fiscal year 2019.

Bounty Actions Also Recover Significant Wealth for the Government and Offer Large Financial Rewards

Other whistleblower reward laws including SEC and CFTC bounty actions also collect billions for the government. These bounty actions target fraud in the financial markets. Further, these bounty actions allow whistleblowers to anonymously report fraud and collect large financial rewards.

More Information on Whistleblower Reward Laws

Persons with original knowledge of significant fraud are encouraged through financial rewards to expose fraud.  However, whistleblowers must properly report fraud to qualify for a reward. Further, different whistleblower rewards and protections apply to different types of fraud. For these reasons, it often helpful to understand the different laws and have a lawyer review any potential case.

For more information on whistleblower reward laws, please go to the following webpages: Whistleblower Reward Lawyer, CFTC Bounty Actions, and SEC Bounty Action and Investment Fraud.

Whisteblower Reward laws target Medicare Fraud and other billing fraud that costs taxpayers over $100 billion each year. More specifically, state and federal governments use Medicare Billing Fraud Whistleblower Rewards to detect criminals who commit healthcare fraud. This fraud includes upcoding, billing for services not rendered, and billing for medically unnecessary procedures.

Healthcare Professionals Can Earn Medicare Billing Fraud Rewards by Exposing Systematic Fraud

The federal government and several states use financial rewards to encourage the public to expose healthcare fraud. More specifically, these rewards target healthcare professionals with specialized knowledge of significant Medicare billing scams. These rewards can be extremely large as the amount of the financial rewards are based on any recoveries made by the government.

Whistleblower Reward Laws Offer Whistleblower Protections

Whistleblower Reward Laws also include whistleblower protections. The protections prevent and punish retribution against whistleblowers. These protections include penalties that can be used against employers who retaliate against a whistleblower.

Medicare Billing Fraud Whistleblower Lawyers Offer Confidential Reviews of Potential Claims

Healthcare Professionals commonly consult lawyers to review potential cases. More specifically, Medicare billing fraud lawyers commonly provide free reviews of whistleblower reward cases. Further, the lawyer reviews the fraud scheme to determine viability, evidence, and potential damages. The lawyer also provides advice on whistleblower protections and other related issues. Overall, it can be extremely beneficial to obtain legal advice regarding whistleblower laws prior to taking action or deciding not to take action.

Medicare Billing Fraud is One of the Fastest Growing Crimes in the United States

The cost of healthcare keeps increasing. Further, the number of people on Medicate keeps increasing. The combination of these increases causes an exponential growth in Medicare spending which also creates increased fraud.  Estimates for healthcare fraud are between $100 to $200 billion per year.

More Information of Medicare Billing Fraud Whistleblower Rewards

For more information on this topic, please go to the following webpages: Texas Medicare Fraud Lawyer and Medicare Fraud Whistleblower Reward Information.

CFTC and SEC Bounty Actions protect financial professionals, investors, and former financial professionals. More specifically, the agencies prohibit employers from forcing employees and former employees from signing away their employee whistleblower rights. Further, these whistleblower protections prevent corporations from forcing investors from signing away their rights.

Bounty Actions Target Financial Fraud and Other Illegal Conduct

Bounty Actions target illegal conduct including violations of the Securities Exchange Act and Commodities Exchange Act.  More specifically, the SEC targets securities violations and other investment fraud. Further, the CFTC targets money laundering, market manipulation, corrupt practices, and insider trading.

Whistleblower Protections Protect Employee and Former Employee Whistleblower Rights

Both agencies prevent employers from forcing employees to give away their rights to expose illegal conduct. Further, these whistleblower protections apply to retiring and other former employees. More specifically, the agencies prohibit banks and other financial institutions from signing severance agreements blocking bounty actions.

The agencies have taken actions against banks and other corporations who have attempted to prohibit bounty actions. For this reason former employees have bounty action rights regardless of any severance agreement they have signed to the contrary. As such, the agencies encourage employees and former employees to anonymously report illegal conduct.

The Agencies Also Prevent Corporations from Blocking Investor Bounty Action Rights

The SEC and CFTC prohibit corporations from forcing investors signing away their whistleblower bounty action rights. In fact, the SEC recently took action against companies that attempted to force investors to sign away their rights. Further, the SEC clearly prohibits agreements preventing investors reporting potential securities law violations to law enforcement. These agreements violate the SEC whistleblower protections.

SEC and CFTC Whistleblower Protections Broadly Protect Employees and Investors

SEC and CFTC whistleblower protections broadly protect employees. Further, these protections protect investors and anyone who seeks to report illegal conduct through bounty actions.

More Information on Employee Whistleblower Rights and Protections

Please go to the following webpages for more information: Employee Whistleblower Lawyer Information and Employee Whistleblower Protections.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulates financial markets in the United States. More specifically, the agency regulates many participants engaged in investment and stock exchanges. The agency’s goal is to protect investors from investment fraud and other Illegal conduct. To obtain this goal, the agency uses SEC anonymous whistleblower rewards. These rewards are also called bounty actions.

SEC Anonymous Whistleblower Rewards Allow Anonymous Reporting of Investment Fraud and Other Illegal Conduct

Bounty Actions offer whistleblower rewards to investors and financial professionals who anonymously expose fraud and other illegal schemes. More specifically, the agency uses bounty actions to target hard to detect violations of the Securities Exchange Act and other laws. The illegal conduct needs to be significant and based on original information. In other words, the illegal scheme needs to impact at least several millions of dollars. Further, the original information needs to be based on information not readily available to the public.

The SEC Targets Specific Types of Illegal Conduct

While the SEC regulates the financial markets, it commonly targets specific illegal conduct.  In fiscal year 2019, the SEC brought 862 enforcement actions. These actions enforced issuer disclosure and accounting violations. The agency also took action on  auditor misconduct and investment advisory issues. Further, it took action on securities offerings and cryptocurrency offerings.

The agency also commonly takes actions on market manipulation schemes, insider trading schemes, and broker-dealer misconduct. Through the enforcement actions, the SEC obtained judgments and orders totaling more than $4.3 billion in disgorgement and penalties.

SEC Bounty Action Rewards

To date, the SEC has given whistleblowers over $380 million. These SEC whistleblower rewards are calculated as a percentage of the amount of money recovered by the SEC. The percentage can be between 10% to 30% of the money recovered. More specifically, a whistleblower who anonymously exposes a $100 million scheme can recover from $10 million to $30 million.

More Information on SEC Anonymous Whistleblower Rewards

Please go to the following webpages for more information on SEC Anonymous Whistleblower Rewards: SEC Bounty Action Lawyer and Expose Securities Fraud and Earn Large Financial Rewards.

Financial analysts are a select group of professionals who through their expertise often have original information of fraud in the financial market. For this reason, the SEC and CFTC encourage financial analyst whistleblowers to expose significant financial fraud. Further, both agencies use anonymous whistleblower reward laws to encourage financial analysts to expose hard to detect fraud.

Financial Analysts and Money Managers Commonly Have Specialized Knowledge of Significant Financial Fraud

Because of their expertise, financial analysts commonly detect significant fraud schemes in the financial markets. SEC and CFTC bounty actions want this specialized knowledge and are offering financial rewards for it.

More specifically, a financial analyst’s independent analysis of the financial markets often detects market manipulation and other investment fraud schemes. This original information can be the basis of SEC and CFTC bounty actions which pay large financial rewards. As such, financial analysts, money managers, and other financial professionals have a strong economic incentive to expose significant fraud.

SEC and CFTC Bounty Actions Offer Protections to Financial Analyst Whistleblowers

Further, these bounty actions offer whistleblower protections to financial professionals. More specifically, the whistleblower reward laws allow whistleblowers to expose fraud anonymously. Financial analysts need to report the fraud through a lawyer in order to report the fraud anonymously.

The laws also protect financial analysts from retaliation including termination. Further, the laws prevent companies from requiring employees or former employees signing away their bounty action rights. Therefore, former and retired financial professionals retain their right to expose fraud through bounty actions. Further, companies that block this right through severance agreements can be held liable for damages.

More Information on Anonymous Financial Analyst Bounty Actions and other Anonymous Bounty Actions

For more information on this topic, please go to the following webpages: Financial Analyst Whistleblower Reward Information and SEC and CFTC Bounty Actions.