The New York Times reports that the SEC has now opened for business its new whistblower office as required by the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. The office will respond to consumer tips regarding securities fraud. If a consumer tip leads to a successful prosecution and recovery, the consumer and the federal goverment will benefit (and, securities fraud will be deterred). Under the whistle blower program, corporate insider tipsters could receive up to 30 percent of the money the SEC collects from the corporate wrong doer and its officers or directors. To qualify for the fraud tip bounty, an employee needs to provide new information that leads to successful enforcement achieving more than $1,000,000 in fines. The SEC will tap into the $450 million Investor Protection Fund to hand out the rewards. The S.E.C. says the program will help it save money as insider tipsters provide a road map to the financially strapped SEC investigators and attorneys.
Our qui tam and whistle blower attorneys work with insider tipsters to help them prepare tips to submit to the SEC to obtain the rewards.
To learn more about our qui tam and whistle blower practice click here. Lubin Austermuehle’s Chicago business trial lawyers have more than two and half decades of experience helping business clients on unraveling complex business fraud and breach of fiduciary duty cases. We work with skilled forensic accountants and certified fraud examiners to help recover monies missappropriated from our clients and from government. Our Chicago litigation lawyers represent individuals, family businesses and enterprises of all sizes in a variety of legal disputes, including disputes among partners and shareholders as well as lawsuits between businesses and and consumer rights, auto fraud, and wage claim individual and class action cases. In every case, our goal is to resolve disputes as quickly and sucessfully as possible, helping business clients protect their investements and get back to business as usual. From offices in Oak Brook, near Aurora, and Highland Park Chicago, we serve clients throughout Illinois and the Midwest.
If you know about fraud on the government and are prepared to blow the whistle, and you’d like to discuss how the experienced Illinois qui tam and whistle blower attorneys at Lubin Austermuehle can help, we would like to hear from you. To set up a consultation with one of our Wheaton and Chicago qui tam and whistle blower lawyers, please call us toll-free at 630-333-0333 or contact us through the Internet.