The SEC’s explanation of its so-called “Final Rule,” set forth in nearly 300 pages of complex commentary, is basically “pro whistleblower.”
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How To Handle Corporate Internal Investigations
January 7, 2011
Dan Hurson provides tips and advice on how to handle an internal corporate investigation gleaned from his experience as Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel with the SEC enforcement division.
The Proposed Rules For The New SEC Whistleblower Law: Resolving The “Tension” Between Compliance And Whistleblowing
November 30, 2010
The SEC has released its proposed rules for implementation of the much-anticipated whistleblower law enacted last summer as part of the Dodd-Frank bill. The golden age of whistleblowing may be upon us, or it may turn out to be a big bust.
Corporate Governance: Five “Worst Practices”
August 19, 2010
Dan Hurson, in a somewhat contrarian spirit, presents his short list of “worst practices” in corporate governance and compliance.
The SEC Claws Back
November 23, 2009
by Dan Hurson, senior partner in The Hurson Law Firm LLP, in Washington, D.C. The case for strict enforcement of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 304 requiring CEO payback after restatements caused by “misconduct.”
The New SEC Whistleblower Proposal: Make It Fair, Make It Pay, and They Will Come
August 3, 2009
By Dan Hurson – Senior Partner in the Hurson Law Firm, LLP.
Buried deep within the President’s historic new proposals to oversee and regulate the financial markets (“Financial Regulatory Reform, A New Foundation”) is the outline of a provision that garnered no headlines but might well become the most effective new anti-fraud regulation of all: rewarding whistleblowers who disclose fraud cases to the SEC. It is surely the only part of the massive proposal that gives insiders with knowledge of wrongdoing a chance to speak up against and even profit from the types of financial and securities fraud that has infected our financial markets in recent years.
This may be the beginning of the golden age of whistleblowing. Protecting them and making their jobs easier is getting increased attention in Congress. While federal qui tam actions initiated by whistleblowers who report fraud against the government have been around for many years, the concept of rewarding those who report on securities fraud (other than insider trading) is new, and revolutionary.
SEC Changes Proposed for New Approach to Criminal Enforcement, Mandatory Disclosure of Violations by Public Companies
July 7, 2009
By Daniel J. Hurson — Senior Partner in the Hurson Law Firm, LLP, and a former federal prosecutor and SEC enforcement trial lawyer
The SEC will survive, and emerge stronger, from the challenges it has faced recently. It has solid leadership and a highly professional staff. It needs to consider the various internal management reforms that have been suggested by various astute outside observers, including streamlining the enforcement process, reorganizing the top-heavy staff structure of the Enforcement Division, prioritizing its cases, and making sure the Commissioners themselves avoid any colossal mistakes or regulatory blunders which can open the doors to the next big financial debacle that no one today sees coming.
This observer, a former enforcement division trial lawyer who makes no claim to be an expert in the securities laws but perhaps has the detachment afforded one who saw the agency from the inside for awhile but was not there so long as to become a “career” SEC insider, here offers several “outside the box” suggestions which might help the SEC regain its footing as the top regulator of the financial markets.
