WASHINGTON, DC, November 16, 2015 – Erika Kelton, a partner at Phillips & Cohen LLP, moderated a conference panel today with the heads of the whistleblower offices for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, who delivered promising news for whistleblowers.
Christopher Ehrman, Director of the CFTC Whistleblower Office, predicted 2016 “will be our year where we hit our stride.”
Staffing in the CFTC whistleblower office has jumped from three to eight people. In the next week or so, the CFTC will launch a website devoted to whistleblower matters. And he expects in the next year that the CFTC will make changes in its regulations for the whistleblower program that should make the program even stronger.
Sean McKessy, SEC Whistleblower Office Chief, said the SEC “is making extraordinary inroads on the backlog” of whistleblower claims. When it comes to whistleblower awards, he said, “We prioritize getting it right over getting [an award made] fast.”
At the Taxpayers Against Fraud conference, Kelton asked the whistleblower office directors a number of questions about top whistleblower concerns, such as “pretaliation” and the boundaries of anonymity.
She represents a number of clients in the US and in other countries who have significant SEC and CFTC claims. She represented the international whistleblower who received one of the largest SEC whistleblower awards ever issued (more than $32 million) and another significant SEC whistleblower award (more than $3 million).