CFTC Announces $6 Million Whistleblower Award

CFTC

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced it will award more than $6 million to a whistleblower who voluntarily provided original information that led the CFTC to bring a successful enforcement action.

Whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 10 and 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected. All whistleblower awards are paid from the CFTC Customer Protection Fund, which was established by Congress, and is financed entirely through monetary sanctions paid to the CFTC by violators of the CEA. No money is taken or withheld from injured customers to fund the program.  read more »  

Medical Technology Company President Charged in Scheme to Defraud Investors and Health Care Benefit Programs in Connection with COVID-19 Testing

DOJ

The president of a California-based medical technology company was charged in a complaint unsealed today in the Northern District of California, in connection with his alleged participation in schemes to mislead investors, to manipulate the company’s stock price and to conspire to commit health care fraud in connection with the submission of over $69 million in false and fraudulent claims for allergy and COVID-19 testing.

“This defendant allegedly defrauded Medicare through illegal kickbacks and bribes, and then turned to exploiting the pandemic by fraudulently promoting an unproven COVID-19 test to the market,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. read more »  

SEC Charges California Trader Engaged in Manipulative Trading Scheme Involving COVID-19 Claims

SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a penny stock trader in Santa Cruz, California, with conducting a fraudulent pump-and-dump scheme in the stock of a biotechnology company by making hundreds of misleading statements in an online investment forum, including a false assertion that the company had developed an “approved” COVID-19 blood test. read more »