Whistleblower

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has approved a record $30 million whistleblower award, the result of information that helped the agency sanction JPMorgan Chase for failing to properly inform some wealthy clients about conflicts of interest behind its investment recommendations.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that banking records of President Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen appear to have been leaked from a database maintained by his department.

Three unnamed "senior" employees helped the SEC win a $415 million settlement from the bank; Sherborne Investors takes a 5.2% stake in the British bank.

The CFTC will pay the award for tips received from one person in the case, in which the bank didn’t properly disclose that it was steering asset management customers into investments that would be profitable for the bank.

Wells may have settled with former employee Claudia Ponce de Leon because it wanted to avoid the "massive exposure" of a jury trial, an expert says. It is unclear how the agreement will affect Wells’ other cases.

The HUD secretary’s comment that such use of the False Claims Act was “ridiculous” may delight the mortgage industry but does not bode well for taxpayers or the federal government’s future fraud enforcement efforts.

The mishandling of the two former employees’ complaints, detailed in documents and by former OSHA officials, raises questions about the government’s treatment of whistleblowers throughout the financial services industry.