The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued its first annual report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program for fiscal year 2011. Most whistleblower tips submitted to the SEC concerned complaints related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and market manipulation, among other topics. Additionally, most tips were submitted by individuals in California, New York, and foreign countries, including China. However, because the final rule establishing the program became effective in August 2011, only seven weeks of data was available for FY 2011. As a result, the SEC states it is too early to identify any specific trends or conclusions from the data collected to date.
Sources at the Securities and Exchange Commission state that they are “working to issue as soon as possible” the final rule that would change the disclosure and reporting requirements of certain issuers that file reports pursuant to the conflict mineral provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act1, when conflict minerals are necessary to their product line.
On January 3, 2012, the Justice Department announced that Maersk Line Limited has agreed to pay the government $31.9 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to the U.S. in connection with overcharging for transporting cargo in shipping containers for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. This lawsuit was filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act.
The following are trade-related highlights of the Executive Communications sent to Congress for December 1 - 16, 2011:
The White House has posted information on the Open Government Partnership (OGP) launched by the U.S. and Brazil on September 20, 2011 during the United Nations General Assembly. The eight founding members of the OGP signed a declaration and presented their action plans of commitments, and 38 governments said they would join the initiative and announce their action plans in March 2012.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that it will seek public comment by October 6, 2011, on a plan to conduct retrospective reviews of existing regulations. The SEC is seeking public comment on the process it should use to conduct retrospective reviews, such as how often rules should be reviewed, the factors that should be considered, and ways to improve public participation in the rulemaking process. Among the SEC's rulemakings is a June final rule creating a whistleblower incentives and protection program took effect in August 2011. Among other things, the SEC also enforces the accounting provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The European Union issued the following trade-related releases on September 6, 2011 (notices of most significance will be given separate headlines):
On August 31, 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that the U.S. has settled a civil customs lawsuit against an international jewelry company based in Hong Kong, Noble Jewelry, and two of its related corporations, Noble Jewelry Limited and Chad Allison Corporation (collectively Noble Jewelry). Noble Jewelry accepted responsibility for under reporting the value of its imported merchandise and agreed to pay $3.85 million to the U.S. as damages and penalties under the False Claims Act. Using false invoices, the company was able to avoid more than $1 million in customs duties over the course of a decade.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for August 8-12, 2011 in case they were missed last week.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a new webpage for people to report a violation of the federal securities laws and to apply for a financial award in connection with its final rule creating a whistleblower incentives and protection program that took effect on August 12, 2011. The new webpage provides information on eligibility requirements, directions on how to submit a tip or complaint, instructions on how to apply for an award, and answers to frequently asked questions. The new webpage is available here. (See ITT's Online Archives or 08/12/11 news, 11081213, for BP summary of the SEC's final rule.)