The Securities and Exchange Commission recently awarded $1.8 million under its whistleblower program to a financial advisor who risked his career to expose the company’s fraudulent actions.

The former Morgan Stanley broker received the award for providing critical information about violations by two broker-dealers, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and its affiliate Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., for the fraudulent marketing and selling of a proprietary foreign currency trading program.

The Morgan Stanley broker was represented by Attorneys Scott L. Silver of the Silver Law Group in Miami and James D. Sallah and Joshua A. Katz of Sallah, Astarita & Co. in Boca Raton, Fla. The attorneys assisted their client throughout the whistleblower process, working closely with the SEC to expose the fraudulent actions.

“Since our client blew the whistle against Morgan Stanley and Citigroup our client has been instrumental in helping defrauded investors and exposing the misconduct,” said attorney Scott Silver of the Silver Law Group, Co-Counsel for the whistleblower. “Fortunately, the SEC recognized this financial advisor’s courage in coming forward and awarded our client at the top of the award range allowed by law for the information and assistance he provided in this matter.”

According to the SEC, the information facilitated by the whistleblower provided insights that would have been difficult to detect without his help. His assistance allowed the SEC to punish the misconduct and protect investors.

“Information provided by whistleblowers is often crucial to uncovering fraudulent security scheme and ultimately protecting the public from these financial crimes,” said attorney James D. Sallah of Sallah, Astarita & Co, Co-Counsel representing the whistleblower in this matter and a former Senior Counsel in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement in Miami. “We are satisfied that the SEC found the information provided by our client crucial in ultimately being able to return money lost to the investors defrauded by this scheme.”

In January 2017, as a result of the financial advisor’s whistleblower complaint, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Citigroup Global Markets agreed to pay the SEC more than $2.96 million apiece to settle charges that they made false and misleading statements about the foreign exchange trading program they sold to investors.

Several years after blowing the whistle on the securities violation, this week the SEC awarded the whistleblower nearly $1.8 million for his decision to expose the fraudulent scheme, based on the SEC’s determination that the whistleblower “provided a detailed whistleblower tip that alerted Commission staff to the alleged wrongdoing, which would have been difficult to detect in the absence of [the] information; [he] provided extraordinary assistance to the Commission staff; [he] raised concerns internally in an effort to remedy the conduct; and the law enforcement interests are high as [the whistleblower’s] information and assistance helped return money to harmed investors.”

Under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC can award whistleblowers between 10-30% of the fines levied in SEC civil enforcement actions that result from their tip, assuming the fines total more than $1 million. Rarely does a wall street insider come forward to report misconduct at a major wall street firm out of fear of repercussions and agree to speak out publicly for the benefit of investors. James D. Sallah and Scott L. Silver agree that this financial advisor’s case is an exemplar of the importance of the SEC Whistleblower Program which is still in its infancy but has become an important tool for the SEC to discover wall street malfeasance.

The Silver Law Group is a team of securities lawyers, forensic accountants, and support staff who are dedicated to helping investors recover losses because of securities or investment fraud through securities arbitration, class action litigation and SEC whistleblower claims. The firm is led by attorney Scott L. Silver, a former Wall Street defense attorney who has been representing customers in securities and investment fraud cases since 2002. For more information about attorney Scott Silver and the Silver Law Group, please visit: www.silverlaw.com.

Sallah Astarita & Cox, LLC is a boutique law firm which offers its clients in-depth experience in the areas of Securities Enforcement, White Collar Crime, Securities Regulation, Securities Arbitration and Securities Litigation. James D. Sallah, a former SEC Enforcement Attorney, is an AV Preeminent® rated attorney who concentrates on securities and commodity futures regulation and enforcement, broker-dealer compliance and defense, receivership litigation, whistleblower claims, securities arbitration, and business litigation. For more information about attorney James Sallah and Sallah, Astarita & Co., please visit: www.sallahlaw.com.