SEC Ramps Up Whistleblower Awards

WSJ

The Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up the awards it pays to whistleblowers after years of complaints that it has been slow to compensate them for the risks they take to help spot fraud.

Whistleblowers can still wait years to receive a check, said Shayne Stevenson, a lawyer at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP who represents whistleblowers. His clients have usually waited between two and three years after a case was successfully closed, Mr. Stevenson said. The agency doesn’t disclose statistics showing how long individual whistleblowers wait to receive awards.

On average, the SEC has issued about seven award decisions a year, although this year it has already almost doubled that. Since one case can have multiple whistleblowers, an award decision can include payments to more than one person. read more »

Pulitzer Awards For groundbreaking 737MAX stories 

PULITZER.ORG

Four Seattle Times journalist's writing highlighted flaws in the Boeing 737 MAX that led to two deadly crashes and revealed failures in government oversight. read more »

Executive At Investment Management Firm Pleads Guilty In Connection With Multimillion-Dollar Securities Fraud Scheme

DOJ

Ahmad Naqvi, the chief operating officer of Elm Tree Investment Advisors LLC (“ETIA”), pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos to securities fraud charges stemming from his role in a scheme to defraud investors in multiple investment funds created and controlled by NAQVI and Fred Elm, a/k/a “Frederic Elmaleh,” the founder and manager.  Among other illicit activity, Elm and NAQVI fraudulently induced more than 50 investors to invest over $18 million based on the false representation that Elm and NAQVI would invest that money, through the funds, in the shares of privately held technology companies, like Twitter, Alibaba, Uber, and Square, before their initial public offerings (“IPOs”). read more »