There’s a new boom business in town, the latest get rich scheme in the Free Market Economy and it involves dishing the dirt on your friends and employers. It’s a variation on the bounty hunter reward system back in the days of the Wild West, except nobody is guilty of any crimes, and no charges have been laid. It’s all conjecture, an educated guess, but if your hunch is right, you could earn big bucks.<\/p>\n
Whisteblowing. Dishing the dirt.<\/p>\n
Crime does not pay but stitching somebody up does. And if you are a lawyer you can take up to 40% of the bounty money.<\/p>\n
What did Dylan say? Money does not talk –\u00a0 it swears.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Economist reports that On May 5th, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) paid out $279 million to a whistleblower, the largest payout since it started offering rewards\u00a0 over a decade ago, in a scheme that became law in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. The idea was to introduce a mechanism that will give the government some oversight of what the bankers are up to, and as the financial system is fueled by greed, you have to make it worth while for people to spill the beans and blow the whistle.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The commission created an office to contact with\u00a0 tips offs with the remit to offer sizable awards, worth between 10% and 30% of settlements or fines exceeding $1 million, to whistleblowers if their\u00a0 information about corporate malfeasance proves to be correct. The SEC has awarded a cumulative $1.3 billion to 328 whistleblowers as of 2022.<\/p>\n
A nice little earner for some.<\/p>\n
\nThere’s a gentleman that’s going ’round
\nTurnin’ the joint upside down, Stool Pigeon, ha tja tja tja. Kid Creole Stool Pigeon<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nIt was all down to Bernie Madoff who made off<\/em> with 65 billion, and the SEC had not the slightest idea, even though a few people had been telling them for years that there was decidedly something fishy about his get rick quick scheme. So the SEC thought they needed to stop this from ever happening. Again.<\/p>\n
With big money on offer, this approach has brought\u00a0 in over 12,000 submissions in 2022 alone, though only a fraction, about 0.5% go anywhere. And when you do turn your friends in, the lawyers and the firms established by former SEC staff take a massive percentage of the award, on top of fees.<\/p>\n
A league of gentlemen<\/span><\/h2>\n
A forthcoming study by Alexander Platt of the University of Kansas’s law school suggests that about one-quarter of all funds disbursed by the SEC scheme have gone to recipients represented by law firms that have hired former staff from the agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPrivate lawyers have likely extracted hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and expenses from these programs,\u201d Platt wrote, adding that \u201cUnlike traditional plaintiffs\u2019 side securities attorneys and attorneys who represent clients seeking government payments in many other contexts, private whistleblower lawyers operate free from virtually all public accountability, transparency or regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Platt estimates that means as much as $70 million has been paid by the SEC to its own alumni. A\u00a0very small number of lawyers who show up again and again, representing clients who get pay outs.<\/p>\n
The big hole in this scheme is that Madoff got away with his corporate malfeasance because he knew the SEC was asleep at the wheel. Crooks are always ahead of the law. You don’t steal from a shop when the security cameras are on. Madoff ran the SEC and he switched off the cameras.<\/p>\n
Whistleblowers are meant to alert the authorities before the shit hits the fan. The big rewards are to make it worth while. Because you will be persona \u00a0non grata down the country club, and will wear an overcoat of opprobrium for the rest of your career. You had better move to a Caribean island where nobody knows you.<\/p>\n
But if you are thinking of turning your friends in, albeit anonymously , it takes years before you see the money, as the payment is only made when the fine is set down by the court. Whistleblowers whose tips lead to successful civil-enforcement actions are eligible to receive anywhere from 10%-30% of the fines collected as a reward, assuming the SEC collects more than $1 million, according to the New York Post.<\/p>\n
If you hit the big time and the SEC bags 20 million in fines, 5 million could be yours. A tidy earner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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