Whistleblowers play a key role in exposing fraud by banks and other companies in the financial industry.
Phillips & Cohen has represented whistleblowers in successful qui tam lawsuits that alleged various types of fraud by some of the biggest Wall Street investment banks — Goldman Sachs, Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch among others — as well as credit card giants Providian Financial Corp. and Total System Services Inc. Those qui tam cases returned hundreds of millions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury.
In addition to financial fraud, whistleblowers can also report on global corruption cases involving stolen assets, such as those covered under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Program. This program offers significant rewards for information that leads to the recovery of stolen assets tied to foreign corruption, adding another dimension of protection for those willing to come forward.
For information about whistleblower claims involving securities law or commodity law violations, see our pages about the SEC whistleblower program, the CFTC whistleblower program, and the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Program.
Some possible areas of fraud in the financial industry that could violate the False Claims Act and therefore could be the basis for a qui tam lawsuit by a whistleblower include:
- Funds received through the federal bailout programs known as the “Troubled Asset Recovery Program” (TARP) and the “Capital Purchase Program” (CPP) but are received under false pretenses or aren’t used as required under the terms of the programs.
- The Federal Reserve’s Term-Asset-backed Securities Loan Program (TALF) if certain TALF requirements are violated, such as a prohibition on the use of off-shore vehicles by hedge funds.
- Mispricing securities or financial services purchased by public pension funds or federal, state, and municipal governments.
- Material violations of Treasury auction requirements.
- Insider trading or other securities frauds affecting public pension funds.
- Mortgages backed by the Federal Home Administration were obtained through fraudulent information.
- Bid-rigging, kickbacks or “pay for play” to get municipal bond business thus fraudulently driving up the costs to the issuing agency.
- The mispricing of derivatives or other material misrepresentations in connection with municipal transactions.
Municipal bond arbitrage violations through “yield burning” also have been an area where investment banks have pocketed money that should have gone to the government. In some cases, municipal bonds are falsely certified to get tax-exempt treatment, which can cause significant losses to the U.S. Treasury.
The False Claims Act applies only when the government suffers losses. Most whistleblower cases involving banks and other entities in the financial services industry will fall under the strong SEC and CFTC whistleblower programs. Both the SEC whistleblower program and the CFTC whistleblower program offer whistleblower protection, confidentiality and rewards.
If you are aware of fraud in the financial services industry, contact us for a free, confidential review of your whistleblower case. The whistleblower lawyers at Phillips & Cohen have extensive experience and success with whistleblower reward programs and can determine the appropriate course of action in your case.
Whistleblower cases involving tax fraud that exceeds $2 million are covered under a different law, the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. Banks and other entities in the finance industry have been known to engage in tax fraud and tax evasion by helping their clients evade taxes through sham trusts, for example, or abusive tax shelters.
For more information about whistleblower cases involving tax fraud and abuses, please see our pages describing the Internal Revenue Service whistleblower program.