Financial fraud hurts the public. Whistleblowers can stop it.
Insider trading. Securities scams. Market manipulation. Whistleblowers help our government and protect the public from SEC fraud and other financial schemes that can destroy life savings and throw the nation’s economy into turmoil.
We have learned as a nation how fraudulent financial practices can destroy hard-earned nest eggs, cheat retirees and investors, and even cause economic meltdowns like the one that triggered the Great Recession.
People with knowledge of corporate financial wrongdoing — and the ethical conviction and moral fortitude to bring it to light — provide an important public service and may even help prevent the next Enron, Madoff, or other major economic crisis.
Federal law recognizes that whistleblowers who expose SEC fraud provide a valuable public service. For this reason, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provides tipsters who bring unlawful financial activities to the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with financial incentives and protection from retaliation by culpable employers.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) provides incentives, protections, and procedures for people who report information about securities-related fraud to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Created in the spirit of the highly successful False Claims Act, Section 922 of Dodd-Frank entitles whistleblowers who provide the SEC with information leading to a successful enforcement action to awards of 10 to 30 percent of sanctions of $1 million or more.
Dodd-Frank also provides protections for informants from employers. The law prohibits employers from retaliating against employee-whistleblowers and provides whistleblowers with legal recourse if their employers fire them, demote them, or otherwise make their work life difficult. They are protected from retaliation even if the employer hasn’t committed any securities law violations and/or the SEC never files a case against the employer.
The law also gives tipsters who have suffered retaliation the right to file a lawsuit against the employer in federal court. Whistleblowers who prevail are entitled to reinstatement, double back pay, litigation costs and fees, and attorneys fees. The SEC might also separately take action against the employer for retaliation as part of its enforcement action.
Examples of SEC fraud include the following:
- Insider trading
- Market manipulation
- Ponzi schemes
- Financial reporting violating standards established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board
- Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
- Financial scams targeting investors
Expose financial fraud. Protect the public interest. Waters & Kraus can help.
If you have knowledge of your employer’s or another company’s or individual’s financial misconduct, the attorneys at Waters & Kraus can help you navigate the legal waters to report the wrongdoing and protect your rights against retaliation by the wrongdoer. Our attorneys can also help you seek and collect award monies to which you may be entitled.
Waters & Kraus has a history of assisting whistleblowers across the country successfully expose fraud against the government in False Claims Act cases and receive compensation for their efforts. Waters & Kraus can put its extensive experience representing informants to work in protecting your rights and helping you to receive the financial award you deserve for your courage in exposing financial fraud.
Informants can provide anonymous tips to the SEC if they do so through an attorney. Waters & Kraus can help you evaluate the information you have about financial misconduct, determine whether you should first report it to your employer, and provide the information to the SEC. We will then stay apprised of the SEC’s actions based on your information and seek an award on your behalf should the information you revealed result in a sanction of $1 million or more. We can also help you understand and protect your rights against retaliation and represent your best interests should your employer violate your rights.
To learn more about whistleblower representation by Waters & Kraus, or to have one of our attorneys review your potential case, contact us or call 800.226.9880.
