United States: Will You Blow The Whistle Or Should I? The SEC Grants An Award To A Whistleblower Who Learns Of Fraud From Another Employee

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced an award payout of between $475,000 and $575,000 to a former company officer who reported information about an alleged securities fraud.  While this is by no means the largest of the 15 payouts the SEC has made since the inception of the whistleblower program in fiscal year 2012 (the SEC awarded approximately $14 million to a whistleblower in October 2013, and roughly $30 million to a […]

By | March 19th, 2015 ||

United States: Public Pension Fight: Unions Win, Budget Woes Remain

Michael Sweet was quoted in the Investor’s Business Daily article “Public Pension Fight: Unions Win, Budget Woes Remain.”  Full text can be found in the March 9, 2015, issue, but a synopsis is below.

Is public pension reform dead? Defined benefits for public sector workers, which make up a large and growing portion of many stretched municipal budgets, have been on full display in many recent high-profile cases.

In Detroit bondholders accepted large cuts while most […]

By | March 18th, 2015 ||

United States: Labor Secretary Discusses Priorities During Budget Hearing

Members of the House Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday asked Labor Secretary Thomas Perez about various Department of Labor plans and initiatives during a hearing to discuss the department’s fiscal year 2016 budget request. Under the President’s FY 2016 request, the DOL would receive $13.2 billion in discretionary funding. Various committee members asked Perez to explain his priorities, as well as the status of pending activities.

Although Perez was reluctant to name any one DOL […]

By | March 18th, 2015 ||