Ferdose al-Taie, Dallas-based senior counsel in Dykema’s Commercial Litigation group, authored the article “Anonymous Whistleblowers Make Millions for Reporting Their Own Companies to Federal Regulators,” forFOCUS, the quarterly newsletter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) South Central Texas Chapter.

In the article, al-Taie shines a light on the ins and outs of Dodd-Frank Whistleblower awards and who is eligible for consideration. Throughout the article, she defines key terminology and addresses man frequently asked questions about whistleblowers and companies.

Since 2010, when the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”) was signed into law, whistleblowers gained significant financial incentives and protections to report wrongdoing by their companies, officers and directors to federal regulators. Generally, a whistleblower is any person who reveals misconduct by his respective employer or another business or entity. Congress drafted the Dodd-Frank whistleblower framework to mirror the most successful tip-based cooperation programs in the federal government:
cooperating informants in criminal cases prosecuted by U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act managed by DOJ, and the Internal Revenue Service’s whistleblower reward program. Taking the best structures and protections of each, the Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions have been wildly successful for the federal government, which requires strict cooperation by
its whistleblowers in exchange for anonymity, immunity and potentially significant financial awards. Under the program, eligible whistleblowers are entitled to an award of between 10% and 30% of the monetary sanctions collected in actions brought by the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Commodity and Futures Trading Commission, and related actions brought by certain other regulatory and law enforcement authorities.

To read the entire article, please click here.