Recent SEC Fines
On Aug. 16, 2016, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had issued its second fine in as many weeks concerning a company’s use of severance agreements that contain confidentiality and/or covenant-not-to-sue or release provisions that allegedly violate SEC whistleblower Rules.
These recent SEC charges arise from SEC Rules, passed in August 2011 as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), which enable whistleblowers to collect 10 percent to 30 percent of the total award when giving information that leads to an action recovering at least $1 million. Rule 21F-17 provides that “[n]o person may take any action to impede an individual from communicating directly with the [SEC] staff about a possible securities law violation, including enforcing, or threatening to enforce, a confidentiality agreement.”