SEC Issues $20 Million Whistleblower Award

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an award of more than $20 million to a whistleblower who promptly came forward with valuable information that enabled the SEC to move quickly and initiate an enforcement action against wrongdoers before they could squander the money.

The $20 million award is the third-highest since the SEC’s whistleblower program issued its first award in 2012.  The program has now awarded more than $130 million to whistleblowers who voluntarily provided the SEC with unique and useful information that led to a successful enforcement action. read more »

Illinois sues AT&T over minority contract

state of Illinois has sued AT&T, alleging that the communications company lied about work that it was required to farm out to a minority business in a $144 million contract.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, accuses AT&T Datacomm, a unit of the corporate giant, of violating the Illinois False Claims Act by falsely asserting that a subcontractor it hired was a minority business.

Also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit is Antonio Burketh, the minority owner of Net Structure Assets Solutions. The Illinois resident claims his technology business was qualified to be a subcontractor for a 2008 deal under which AT&T would provide hardware, software and services, including equipment upgrades.

When AT&T sought the work, the company "knew that a proposed contract between the state and AT&T would need to be in compliance with the state's minority-owned business goals or requirements," even as it wanted to hire a nonminority subcontractor, the lawsuit says. "At that time, there were numerous minority-owned businesses" that were capable of being a subcontractor, but the company picked a nonminority firm.

"AT&T falsely represented to the state that it was and had complied with minority-owned business requirements mandated by the state," the lawsuit says. read more »

Privilege, retaliation and the fired GC

If general counsel cannot make use of privileged information to show they were fired in retaliation for raising questions about their former employers, are in-house lawyers effectively denied the protection of federal whistleblower statutes?

That is one of the arguments in a new brief by Sanford Wadler, the onetime general counsel of the life sciences company Bio-Rad. Wadler worked at Bio-Rad for nearly 25 years but was terminated in 2013 after raising questions about possible Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations by employees in China. The company, which paid $55 million in 2014 to resolve U.S. government allegations of bribery to foreign officials in Vietnam, Thailand and Russia, investigated Wadler’s accusations about its practices in China and concluded he was wrong. read more »

Who is Navinder Singh Sarao, what was the Wall Street flash crash and where did the Hound of Hounslow name come from?

ROGUE trader Navinder Sarao has been allowed to return to Britain from the United States after pleading guilty to his role in a 2010 Wall Street crash.

But who is the so-called “Hound of Hounslow” – and what was his part in the Wall Street flash crash?

Here’s everything you need to know about the market manipulator. read more »

In an unprecedented effort, our firm's client discovered the manipulative activity that was brought to the attention of the CFTC and DOJ who subsequently charged Mr. Sarao and now have successfully won this extradition firght and secured his guilty plea.

2-Ex-InterMune executive, friend found liable for insider trading

A former executive at pharmaceutical company InterMune Inc and a British restaurant owner were found liable on Monday on U.S. civil charges that they engaged in a $1 million insider trading scheme.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said a federal jury in San Francisco found Sasan Sabrdaran, InterMune's former director of drug safety risk management, and Farhang Afsarpour, a British friend, liable for insider trading.

The verdict marked a victory for the SEC, which has gone 2-1/2 years without a trial defeat in federal court after suffering a series of losses in insider trading cases. read more »

Former Nova Bank exec gets 14 months in prison

Brian M. Hartline, 52, former chief executive of the defunct Nova Bank, was sentenced Monday to 14 months in prison and fined $50,000 for his role in a scheme to defraud the U.S. Treasury Department's bank bailout program in 2009. read more »