The Successful Early Years, Andrew Ceresney, Director Division of Enforcement SEC

"I am pleased to have the opportunity this morning to speak about the Commission’s whistleblower program to an audience so integral to that program, whistleblowers and their counsel. Whistleblowers provide an invaluable public service, often at great personal and professional sacrifice and peril. I cannot overstate the appreciation we have for the willingness of whistleblowers to come forward with evidence of potential securities law violations. I often speak of the transformative impact that the program has had on the Agency, both in terms of the detection of illegal conduct and in moving our investigations forward quicker and through the use of fewer resources. The success of the program can be seen, in part, in the over $107 million we have paid to 33 whistleblowers for their valuable assistance, in cases with more than $500 million ordered in sanctions..." read more »

Wall Street whistleblowers reap millions

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has paid out more than $100 million in a new whistleblower program aimed at rooting out bad behavior on Wall Street.

The SEC says the program, created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, is beginning to yield valuable information from inside the nation’s largest financial institutions.

“We are getting incredibly good tips,” Jane Norberg, acting director of the SEC’s whistleblower office, told The Hill. “The more we pay awards, the more we encourage those high-quality tips to come in the door.”

Under the program, whistleblowers are encouraged to come forward with information on insider trading, stock price manipulation and other financial crimes. read more » 

Jury says city of Miami defrauded bond investors — again

A federal jury has found that Miami city officials defrauded bond investors in 2009 by playing shell games with public money, making the municipality the only one in the country to have been caught twice committing securities violations.

After deliberating for less than four hours Wednesday on a civil case the Securities and Exchange Commission brought in 2013, jurors returned a unanimous verdict that found the city liable on two counts of violating the federal Securities Act and one count of the Exchange Act. The nine-member jury also found former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux, the accused architect of the city’s scheme, liable on one count of violating the Securities Act and two counts of the Exchange Act, but not liable on a fourth count. read more » 

Ten Eastern California Real Estate Investors Sentenced for Roles in Bid-Rigging and Mail-Fraud Conspiracies Involving Real Estate Purchased at Public Foreclosure Auctions

Ten Eastern California real estate investors were sentenced yesterday for their participation in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Eastern California, the Department of Justice announced.

The primary purpose of the conspiracies was to suppress and restrain competition and to conceal payoffs in order to obtain selected real estate offered at San Joaquin County public foreclosure auctions at non-competitive prices.  When real estate properties are sold at these auctions, the proceeds are used to pay off the mortgage and other debt attached to the property, with remaining proceeds, if any, paid to the homeowner.  According to court documents, these conspirators paid and received money that otherwise would have gone to pay off the mortgage and other holders of debt secured by the properties. read more »

Ex-Simpson Thacher Clerk Gets Prison For Insider Trading

A New Jersey federal judge on Wednesday handed a 46-month prison sentence to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP’s former managing clerk for his role in an insider trader scheme that netted $5.6 million for himself and two co-conspirators.

In addition to the nearly four-year incarceration term, Steven Metro will have to serve three years of probation after his release and pay a $10,000 fine for his misdeeds, which entailed stealing confidential information from the New York City firm, according to the penalties imposed by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp in Trenton. read more »

FINRA Fines Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. $850,000 for Failing to Supervise the Transmittal of Funds From Customer Brokerage Accounts

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has fined Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. $850,000 for failing to detect the conversion of more than $370,000 from five customer brokerage accounts by one of its registered representatives. Ameriprise failed to adequately investigate red flags associated with nine third-party wire requests read more »

Verizon Military Overcharging FCA Claims Dropped

A rate plan analysis firm has dropped its False Claims Act whistleblower suit accusing Verizon Communications Inc. of knowingly overcharging the U.S. Department of Defense millions of dollars for wireless communication services, according to a D.C. federal court ruling Tuesday agreeing to dismissal. read more »

Corruption whistleblower should be protected not punished

Gasim Abdul Kareem, a former manager at the Bank of Maldives, is being prosecuted for disclosing customer information that revealed details related to a multi-million dollar corruption scandal in the Maldives, where money that should have gone to the state was allegedly siphoned off into private accounts.

Transparency International and Transparency Maldives are calling on the Prosecutor General to dismiss the case because the information disclosed is not only in the public interest, but such disclosures are protected under the Maldives Banking Act. read more »