Thinking of blowing the whistle on securities fraud? Now you can thanks to the recent signing of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 or “WSRCPA”.
Whistleblowers may be the only Americans with a reason to cheer Dodd-Frank. They should not cheer too loudly. Cheer or no, Section 922 of this 73MB, 2323-page PDF monstrosity (officially H.R. 4173) effectively replaces and significantly upgrades the current, largely non-functional anti-retaliation provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley § 806.
How do the § 922 whistleblower provisions compare to the False Claims Act or “FCA”? In some respects, the two are almost identical. In others, the statutes differ significantly. In theory at least, both statutes offer whistleblowers potentially handsome financial rewards for bringing forward “original information” about fraud. The awards generally range between 15 and 30 percent under the FCA (10-30 percent under § 922) of what the government collects as a result of the whistleblower’s disclosures. The FCA seeks to protect tax funds from unscrupulous contractors. In contrast, Section 922 attempts to shield investors from Bernie-Madoff-style securities fraud. O fther major points of comparison and divergence follow.
Size Matters
Section 922 makes awards only in cases where the “monetary sanctions” collected from the defendant exceed $1,000,000. Theoretically, there is no floor on FCA claims. Practically speaking, each U.S. attorney’s office has its own threshold because there are just too many cases and too few assistant U.S. attorneys. Some won’t consider a case alleging less than $1,000,000 in “single damages”. Others will jump at a $500K case.
Section 922 excludes more whistleblowers
Oddly enough, if you gain the case information through the performance of an audit of financial statements required under the securities laws and, for you in your position, submission of the information to the SEC would be contrary to the requirements of section 10A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78j-1), forget about it. You can’t be an SEC whistleblower. You’re not alone. The same exclusion applies to to “any whistleblower who is, or was at the time the whistleblower acquired the original information submitted to the Commission, a member, officer, or employee of (i) an appropriate regulatory agency; (ii) the Department of Justice; (iii) a self-regulatory organization; (iv) the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board; or (v) a law enforcement organization.
Section 922 offers no private cause of action
Unlike the FCA which authorizes plaintiffs called “relators” to sue even if the government decides not to, under § 922 of the WSRCPA only the government can pursue a securities fraud claim. If the SEC chooses not to pursue a whistleblower case, the whistleblower is pretty much out of options. To place this in practical context, not even Harry Markopolos — with all of his data and analysis — could force the case into court if the SEC doesn’t want to go.
Section 922′s “original information” broader than FCA’s
While the term “original information” is not used in the FCA, the FCA also makes awards only for the provision of new information. That said, Section 922′s formulation of “original information” appears to be more expansive than that of the FCA.
Unlike the FCA, Section 922 includes within its domain of “original information” not only bare “knowledge” but also “analysis” provided by a whistleblower. This should be seen as significantly expanding the “original information” perimeter to include private analysis of publicly available data like that which enabled Harry Markopolos to detect the Madoff fraud long before the SEC did. While it is possible that an FCA whistleblower may have won a settlement on the basis of such analysis alone, I am not currently aware of any such case.
On the flip side, Section 922 excludes from permissible “original information” information “exclusively derived from an allegation made in a judicial or administrative hearing, in a governmental report (as opposed to federal government, in the FCA), hearing, audit, or investigation, or from the news media, unless the whistleblower is a source of the information. The phrases “exclusively derived” and “a source” are exclusive to Section 922 — they do not appear in the FCA.
Arguably, the net impact of “government,” “exclusively derived,” and “a source” — together with the addition of the word “analysis” — is to expand the pool of “original information” for SEC whistleblowers beyond than that available to FCA relators.
Section 922 will be administered by a dedicated SEC office
FCA relators should be so lucky. FCA claims are typically administered and enforced by Main Justice DOJ Civil Division attorneys or by local Assistant US Attorneys who have lots of responsibilities in addition to FCA cases. The focus offered by a special SEC whistleblower office should give SEC whistleblowers a leg up assuming that it is properly staffed and managed.
SEC determines Section 922 awards
Unlike the FCA where the district courts have authority to approve FCA settlements and associated whistleblower awards, Section 922 grants the SEC complete discretion to identify award recipients and set largely unappealable award amounts.
WSRCPA § 21F(c)(1)(B) directs the SEC to “take into consideration” a specific list of four factors in making awards.* However, the House-Senate Conference Committee’s softening of the Senate version language of § 21F(c)(1)(B) from “shall account for” to “shall take in consideration” signal that the SEC can weight and apply these factors almost at will. Act § 21F(f) deprives district courts of any supervisory role, sending award appeals directly to the circuit courts which must review SEC decisions in accordance with Section 706 of the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
Readers may judge for themselves what awards whistleblowers should expect in light of the fact that awards will be paid out of the same SEC Investor Protection Fund from which the SEC’s OIG will fund its activities.
Bottom line: Dodd-Frank offers pros and cons for SEC whistleblowers. While it isn’t nearly as robust as the FCA, Dodd-Frank is a major improvement over Sarbanes-Oxley. If you’re thinking of blowing the SEC whistle and can’t wait to get started, give us a call. We can help you blow more efficiently with greater results.
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The § 21F(c)(1)(B) award-amount factors are as follows:
1. the significance of the information provided by the whistleblower to the success of the action;
2. the degree of assistance provided by the whistleblower and any legal representative of the whistleblower in a covered judicial or adrninistrative action;
3. the SEC’s programmatic interest in deterring violations of the securities law by making awards to WBs; and
4. such additional relevant factors as the Commission may establish by rule or regulation.
*Cross-posted at The Schulzke Brief.
