Accounting Fraud and Other SEC Violations Can Be The Basis of Large SEC Bounty Actions Where Executives, Accounting Professionals, and other Business Professionals Can Earn Large Financial Rewards By Anonymously Filing a SEC Bounty Action Through a Accounting Fraud Bounty Action Lawyer by Accounting Fraud Lawyer and SEC Violation Lawyer Jason S. Coomer

Accounting fraud and other SEC violations can be the basis of large SEC Bounty Actions which pay large financial rewards to persons with original information of significant fraud. Through the implementation of new whistleblower protections business and accounting professionals can now seek large financial rewards by anonymously reporting significant accounting fraud and other SEC violations through a whistleblower reward lawyer.

For a confidential review of a potential Accounting Fraud SEC Bounty Action or SEC Violation Bounty Action, please feel free to contact SEC Bounty Action Lawyer Jason Coomer via e-mail message or use our submission form.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Requires U.S. Companies and Foreign Companies Listed on the U.S. Securities Exchange to Maintain Accurate Books and Records

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) require U.S. companies and foreign companies listed on the U.S. securities exchange to maintain accurate books and records. Companies that fail that to maintain accurate books and records can be subject to large financial fines by the SEC as well as large SEC bounty actions. Based on recent whistleblower reward laws, business professionals with original knowledge of accounting fraud, stock manipulation schemes, false and misleading information on a company's financial statements, false information on Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, insider trading; embezzlement by stockbrokers; or other securities fraud can report these SEC violations through a SEC bounty action lawyer to receive a large financial reward.

The Accounting Provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act basically make it illegal for a company that reports to the SEC to have false or inaccurate books or records. As such, corporations that are intentionally defrauding the SEC and investors through fraudulent accounting and stock manipulation schemes can be the target of SEC bounty actions that can result in large financial rewards for the informant or whistleblower that has evidence of the fraud and is the first to step forward to report the fraud.

SEC Charges CSC and Former Executives With Accounting Fraud
Company to Pay $190 Million Penalty
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2015-111
Washington D.C., June 5, 2015

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Computer Sciences Corporation and former executives with manipulating financial results and concealing significant problems about the company’s largest and most high-profile contract. The SEC additionally charged former finance executives involved with CSC’s international businesses for ignoring basic accounting standards to increase reported profits.

CSC agreed to pay a $190 million penalty to settle the charges, and five of the eight charged executives agreed to settlements. Former CEO Michael Laphen agreed to return to CSC more than $3.7 million in compensation under the clawback provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and pay a $750,000 penalty. Former CFO Michael Mancuso agreed to return $369,100 in compensation and pay a $175,000 penalty.

The SEC filed complaints in federal court in Manhattan against former CSC finance executives Robert Sutcliffe, Edward Parker, and Chris Edwards, who are contesting the charges against them. Sutcliffe was CSC’s finance director for its multi-billion dollar contract with the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS).

The SEC alleges that CSC’s accounting and disclosure fraud began after the company learned it would lose money on the NHS contract because it was unable to meet certain deadlines. To avoid the large hit to its earnings that CSC was required to record, Sutcliffe allegedly added items to CSC’s accounting models that artificially increased its profits but had no basis in reality. CSC, with Laphen’s approval, then continued to avoid the financial impact of its delays by basing its models on contract amendments it was proposing to the NHS rather than the actual contract. In reality, NHS officials repeatedly rejected CSC’s requests that the NHS pay the company higher prices for less work. By basing its models on the flailing proposals, CSC artificially avoided recording significant reductions in its earnings in 2010 and 2011.

The SEC’s investigation found that Laphen and Mancuso repeatedly failed to comply with multiple rules requiring them to disclose these issues to investors, and they made public statements about the NHS contract that misled investors about CSC’s performance. Mancuso also concealed from investors a prepayment arrangement that allowed CSC to meet its cash flow targets by effectively borrowing large sums of money from the NHS at a high interest rate. Mancuso merely told investors that CSC was hitting its targets “the old fashioned hard way.”

“When companies face significant difficulties impacting their businesses, they and their top executives must truthfully disclose this information to investors,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “CSC repeatedly based its financial results and disclosures on the NHS contract it was negotiating rather than the one it actually had, and misled investors about the true status of the contract. The significant sanctions in this case against the company, CEO, and CFO reflect our focus on ensuring that such misconduct is vigorously pursued and punished.”

Stephen L. Cohen, Associate Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, added, “The wide-ranging misconduct in this case spanned several countries and occurred over multiple years, reflecting significant management lapses and internal controls failures. We expect this settlement and the recommendations of an independent ethics and compliance consultant will help prevent future misconduct.”

In addition to the accounting and disclosure violations involving the NHS contract, the SEC’s investigation found that CSC and finance executives in Australia and Denmark fraudulently manipulated the financial results of the company’s businesses in those regions.

The SEC alleges that Parker, who served as controller in Australia, along with regional CFO Wayne Banks overstated the company’s earnings by using “cookie jar” reserves and failing to record expenses as required. They overstated CSC’s operating results by more than 5 percent in the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 and allowed the company to meet analysts’ earnings targets during that period. Banks agreed to settle the charges and pay disgorgement of $10,990 with prejudgment interest of $2,400, plus accept an officer-and-director bar of at least four years as well as a bar from practicing as an accountant on behalf of SEC-regulated entities for at least four years. The SEC’s case continues against Parker.

Bounty Actions Are The Newest Forms of Whistleblower Reward Lawsuits And Were Created to Indentify Investment Fraud and Securities Fraud: SEC Securities Fraud Whistleblowers and FCTC Fraud Whistleblowers Can Receive Large Rewards For Properly Filing Bounty Actions

With the success of the Federal False Claims Act and several state false claims act laws, the United States has enacted new Bounty Action Laws to expose investment fraud, commodities fraud, and securities fraud. These Bounty Action Whistleblower Reward Laws are section 21F of the Securities Exchange Act (SEC Whistleblower Bounty Actions), and section 23 of the Commodity Exchange Act (CFTC Whisteblower Bounty Actions). These laws were passed in the wake of Financial Market Melt Down in 2008 and in response to massive fraud in the financial markets. These whistleblower recovery laws are designed to encourage people with specialized knowledge of significant investment fraud, securities fraud, SEC violations, commodity futures fraud, violations of the foreign corrupt practices act, and other financial fraud. These whistleblower reward laws were designed to protect whistleblowers that step up and blow the whistle on financial fraud.

As a SEC Bounty Action Whistleblower Reward Lawyer and CFTC Bounty Action Whistleblower Lawyer, Jason Coomer works with CFTC whistleblowers and SEC whistleblowers to confidentially gather information regarding several different types of financial fraud and investment fraud can be the basis for these bounty actions. For more information on SEC Whistleblower Reward Bounty Actions and CFTC Whistleblower Reward Bounty Actions, please feel to go to the following web pages:

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Whistleblowers

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the new SEC Whistleblower Incentive Program work together to reward whistleblowers with original and specialized knowledge and evidence of international business corporate bribery and illegal kickbacks. These new international business whistleblower reward laws are part of a worldwide movement to expose and punish government corruption such as contract bribes, illegal kickbacks, and large scale international fraud. These Foreign Corrupt Practices Act should help prevent government corruption in many countries including Russia, China, Mexico, and Brazil.

Employee Whistleblower Recovery Lawyer, Employee Whistleblower Recovery False Claims Act Lawyer, Employee Whistleblower IRS Reward Lawyer, Employee Whistleblower SEC Bounty Action Lawyer, and Employee Whistleblower Recovery CFTC Lawyer
(Qui Tam Award & Employee Whistleblower Recovery Lawsuit Information)

Employee whistleblower recovery laws in the United States have been recently passed and strengthened to encourage employees with specialized knowledge of fraud to blow the whistle on significant fraud. These employee whistleblower recovery laws provide strong whistleblower protections and large economic incentives to employee whistleblowers. For more information on Employee Whistleblower Laws, please go to the following web page, Employee Whistleblower Award & Recovery Lawsuits.

Qui Tam Actions and Bounty Actions Create Economic Incentives through Whistleblower Recovery Law that are Extremely Effective in Exposing and Preventing Fraud Against the Government as well as other Unlawful Conduct

Offering large financial awards and economic incentives to persons with knowledge of crimes and criminals including offering whistleblower rewards and whistleblower bounties have been an extremely effective method of identifying unlawful conduct, crimes, and criminals. When the government offers the economic reward to private citizens for exposing fraud against the government, such actions are called "qui tam actions". In these actions, the plaintiff is suing on their own behalf as well for the government and taxpayers.

The qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act are based on the theory that one of the least expensive and most effective means of preventing frauds on taxpayers and the government is to make the perpetrators of government fraud liable to actions by private persons acting under the strong stimulus of economic benefit as well as patriotic duty, personal ill will, and/or strong personal ethics.

The strong public policy behind creating an financial reward for whistleblowers is that the government would be significantly less likely to learn of the allegations of fraud, but for persons in certain positions with specialized knowledge of Medicare fraud, Medicaid fraud, defense contractor fraud, investment fraud, foreign business fraud, tax fraud, or significant fraud that has been committed. Congress has made it clear that creating these financial incentives is beneficial not only for the government, taxpayers, and the realtor, but is an efficient method of regulating government to prevent fraud and fraudulent schemes.

The central purpose of the qui tam whistleblower reward provisions of the False Claims Act as well as the IRS whistleblower reward, SEC whistleblower reward, and CFTC whistleblower reward bounty actions is to set up incentives to supplement government regulation and enforcement by encouraging whistleblowers with specialized knowledge of significant fraudulent schemes against the government and the public to blow the whistle on the fraudulent and criminal acts.

The more recent enactment of the financial fraud whistleblower reward laws are response to large scale fraud that almost collapsed the world financial markets. These new bounty actions work under the same premise as extremely successful qui tam whisleblower reward laws. By encouraging private citizens with specialized knowledge of financial fraud, the government is seeking to deter investment fraud, securities fraud, SEC violations, retirement fund fraud, corporate malfeasance, violations of the foreign corrupt practices act, and other forms of financial fraud by offering rewards or bounties to persons that properly expose this fraud.

For more information on whistleblower reward lawsuits, please go to the following web page on Whistleblower Recovery Lawsuits

Qui Tam Whistleblower Reward Lawsuits and Whistleblower Reward Lawsuits from Medicare Whistleblower Reward Lawyer, Medicaid Whistleblower Reward False Claims Act Lawyer, Defense Contractor Fraud Whistleblower Reward Lawyer, Whistleblower Reward SEC Bounty Action Lawyer, and Whistleblower Reward CFTC Lawyer

Under Federal law, whistleblower recoveries can come through four different whistleblower recovery laws. The Federal False Claims Act is the oldest of the laws and under this law the Federal Government has brought in approximately $30 Billion. Under this law successful whistleblowers have been awarded over $3 Billion and these whistleblower rewards are expected to continue to expand as many states are enacting their own false claims act laws. The Federal False Claims Act was recently amended by the Federal Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA) including expanding the reach of the Federal False Claims Act to include subcontractors working under a government contractor and other parties working with government contractors. The Federal False Claims Act was also expanded protection for employee whistleblowers. States have also been encouraged through economic incentives to enact their own Medicaid False Claims Act whistleblower recovery laws. These state whistleblower recovery laws must be at least as strong as the Federal False Claims Act whistleblower reward laws for the state to receive the increased economic benefits from the Federal Medicaid Fraud Recovery Program.

Qui Tam Whistleblower Reward Lawsuits and Bounty Action Whistleblower Reward Lawsuits by Qui Tam Whistleblower Reward Lawyer, Federal False Claims Act Lawyer, and Bounty Action Whistleblower Reward Lawyer

Through Qui Tam Whistleblower Reward Lawsuits billions of dollars have recovered from fraudulent government contractors that have stolen large amounts of money from the government and taxpayers. It is extremely important that Whistleblowers continue to expose fraudulent billing practices and corruption that cost billions of dollars.

If you are aware of a large government contractor that is defrauding the United States Government out of millions or billions of dollars, contact Qui Tam Whistleblower Reward Lawyer and Bounty Action Whistleblower Reward Lawyer Jason Coomer. As a Texas Whistle Blower Lawyer, he works with other powerful qui tam lawyers that handle large Government Fraud cases. He works with San Antonio Whistleblower Lawyers, Dallas Whistleblower Lawyers, Houston Government Fraud Lawyers, and other Texas Whistleblower Lawyers as well as with Whistleblower Lawyers throughout the nation to blow the whistle on fraud that hurts the United States and taxpayers.

Feel Free to Contact Us with any Questions

Associations

Admitted to Practice in the United States District Court Western District of Texas