CFTC and SEC Seek Whistleblowers to Expose Investment Fraud, Insider Trading, and Securities Fraud

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Are Offering Large Rewards and Bounties to Whistleblowers That Properly Expose Hedge Fund Fraud, Investment Fraud, Insider Trading, False Accounting, Investment Derivative Fraud, Government Official Bribes, and Securities Fraud by Hedge Fund Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer, Securities Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer, Insider Trading Whistleblower Lawyer, and Investment Derivatives Fraud Whistleblower Lawyer Jason S. Coomer

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are offering large financial rewards and bounties to whistleblowers that properly expose hedge fund fraud, securities fraud, corporate false accounting, government official bribes, and corruption in the Financial Services Industry.  These new Whistleblower Bounty Laws have been enacted to encourage financial services professionals, high end investors, government officials, regulators, and other individuals with knowledge of securities fraud, hedge fund fraud, derivatives fraud, financial services government bribes, investment fraud, corporate false accounting, and other SEC violations and CFTC violations, to expose the fraud and corruption.  These new whistleblower reward laws offer large financial rewards and whistleblower protections for persons including international whistleblowers that qualify and expose significant fraud and corruption.

Statement on the Application of Insider Trading Law to Trading by Members of Congress and Their Staffs

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are offering large financial rewards and bounties to International Whistleblowers that properly expose international hedge fund fraud, international securities fraud, corporate false accounting, government official bribes, and corruption in the Financial Services Industry.

Insider trading has long been a high priority for the Commission. Approximately eight percent of the 650 average annual number of enforcement cases filed by the Commission in the past decade have been for insider trading violations. In the past two years, the Commission has been particularly active in this area. In fiscal year 2010, the SEC brought 53 insider trading cases against 138 individuals and entities, a 43 percent increase in the number of filed cases from the prior fiscal year. This past fiscal year, the Commission filed 57 actions against 124 individuals and entities, a nearly 8 percent increase over the number of filed cases in fiscal year 2010.

The increased number of insider trading cases has been matched by an increase in the quality and significance of our recent cases. In fiscal year 2011 and the early part of fiscal year 2012, the SEC obtained judgments in 18 actions arising out of its investigation of Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, including a record $92.8 million civil penalty against Rajaratnam personally. The SEC also discovered and developed information that ultimately led to criminal convictions of Rajaratnam and others, including corporate executives and hedge fund managers, for rampant insider trading. In addition, we recently filed an insider trading action against Rajat Gupta, a former director of both Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble, whom we allege provided confidential Board information about both companies’ quarterly earnings and about an impending $5 billion Berkshire Hathaway investment in Goldman Sachs to Rajaratnam, who traded on that information.

Among others charged in SEC insider trading cases in the past fiscal year were various hedge fund managers and traders involved in a $30 million expert networking trading scheme, a former Nasdaq Managing Director, a former Major League Baseball player, a Food and Drug Administration chemist, and a former corporate attorney and a Wall Street trader who traded in advance of mergers involving clients of the attorney’s law firm. The SEC also brought insider trading cases charging a Goldman Sachs employee and his father with trading on confidential information learned by the employee on the firm’s ETF desk, and charging a corporate board member of a major energy company and his son for trading on confidential information about the impending takeover of the company.