CFTC Announces $2 Million Award to Joint Whistleblowers

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced today an award of approximately $2 million to two model whistleblowers who provided the agency with significant information that prompted the CFTC to open an investigation.

Since establishing the Whistleblower Program, the CFTC has awarded more than $90 million to whistleblowers, while CFTC actions associated with those awards have resulted in sanctions orders totaling more than $730 million.  The largest single award was approximately $30 million paid to one whistleblower.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 created the CFTC’s Whistleblower Program.  Whistleblower awards can range from 10 to 30 percent of the money collected in actions where the amount of sanctions ordered exceeds $1 million. read more »

Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency needs deep thought and detail

Facebook’s fledging cryptocurrency will raise questions for both society and government that need close examination, a senior official at Britain’s financial watchdog said on Tuesday, in another sign that the planned project will face deep scrutiny. read more »

The war on money-launderers’ vehicle of choice intensifies

Some of the biggest offshore centers are increasing transparency about ownership.

Financial crimes come in all shapes and sizes, from politicians siphoning off state wealth and officials taking bungs to terrorists buying arms and gangs laundering drug profits. A common element is the use of shell companies, partnerships or foundations to hide the identities of those moving dirty money. Such brass-plate entities, whose ownership is typically hard if not impossible to trace, were at the heart of the theft from 1mdb, a Malaysian state fund, and a $230bn money-rinsing scandal at Danske Bank. They have been dubbed the “getaway cars” of financial crime. read more »