Report: SEC Whistleblower Awards Fall to 6-Year Low in FY 2025.

SEC Whistleblower Awards Tumble to 6-Year Low, Signaling ‘Closer Scrutiny and Stricter Standards’

A powerful incentive to rat out corporate misconduct waned in the latest fiscal year, as payouts under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Whistleblower Program fell to their lowest level in six years, a Law. com analysis found.

The SEC paid whistleblowers about $60 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30—a low not seen since 2019. In fiscal 2023, the agency awarded $600 million—the most since the program launched in 2011—and in fiscal 2024 it handed out $255 million. (See year-by-year data at the bottom of this story).

Law. com tallied the latest year’s payouts by reviewing nearly 150 award determinations. Because the agency redacted dollar amounts in a handful of the documents and because some of the records might have been duplicative, the SEC might report a somewhat higher or lower 2025 payout when it submits the program’s annual report to Congress in the coming weeks.

DOJ seizes $15 billion in bitcoin in ‘pig butchering’ fraud

The Department of Justice has seized about $15 billion worth of bitcoin held in cryptocurrency wallets owned by a man who oversaw a massive “pig butchering” fraud operation based in Cambodia, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The seizure is the largest forfeiture action sought by the DOJ in history.

An indictment charging the alleged pig butcher, Chen Zhi, with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy was unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

Zhi, a 38-year-old Chinese-born emigre who is also known as “Vincent,” remains at large, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Zhi faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the charges.

Crypto Litigation Shows the Industry Won Fight Over Legitimacy

As the federal government has shifted away from aggressive enforcement, Drylewski has found himself doing more proactive advising on crypto issues, working with clients that are both crypto-native and what he calls “crypto-curious.” His litigation practice remains very busy—but it’s more focused on cases filed by private parties, including putative class actions, and investigations by state regulators under state blue sky and other laws.

Many of the issues raised in private litigation are similar to the issues involved in the enforcement actions brought by the Biden administration. For example, what qualifies as a “security” for purposes of federal securities laws, under the US Supreme Court’s Howey test, remains a hotly contested question.

Trump Wants to End Quarterly Reporting. Jack Welch Would Approve

Perhaps the biggest risk in getting rid of quarterly reporting is that you’re messing with the secret sauce that’s helped make US exchanges the biggest in the world, says Shiva Rajgopal, professor of accounting and auditing at Columbia Business School and co-author of the 2004 CFO study. He says the more frequent disclosures mean less perceived risk for investors, which helps inspire trust. “US markets account for roughly half of the value of overall global markets,” Rajgopal says. “It’s an amazing juggernaut. It’s important to preserve that.”

Still, Rajgopal acknowledges that quarterly earnings requirements are burdensome and expensive, and they distort decision-making. Perhaps nothing illustrates this better than GE itself. Welch’s aggressive job cuts, bold pivots and risky ventures—many in service of the almighty quarterly earnings report—transformed GE into a very different company. After Welch retired, the sprawling conglomerate struggled financially and got hit with multiple SEC investigations and a $50 million fine for accounting fraud; it eventually split into three companies. Many critics say Welch’s obsession with earnings left the once powerful company a shell of its former self.

EY Arms Auditors With AI as Firm Aims to Sustain Quality Gains

EY has equipped its audit teams with new artificial intelligence capabilities that the Big Four accounting firm says will advance the quality of its work scrutinizing the risks and revenues of some of the world’s largest companies.

AI-backed tools deployed this year allow EY auditors to assess computer code that drives corporate financial reporting safeguards and to pinpoint risks facing their clients from a sea of external information. More capabilities using autonomous agents that can complete tasks independently are set to come online next year.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to upend accounting and shine a brighter light on fraud and other risks for auditors tasked with vetting the profits of public companies worth trillions. For Ernst & Young LLP, the latest tech promises to build on what the firm anticipates will already be a dramatic improvement in its annual audit inspection results.