A litigation boutique based in Oakland, California, representing plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil litigation.
The Norton Law Firm Secures $685,000+ Maximum SEC Whistleblower Award
The Norton Law Firm obtained an award exceeding $685,000 for its clients under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Whistleblower Program, the highest percentage permitted under SEC regulations.
The award, obtained on January 16, 2026, represents 30% of the SEC’s recovery, the maximum allowable payout for a recovery under $5 million. The firm obtained the maximum payout because of its early filings and the significance of the clients’ information.
The firm’s clients were the first to identify a pump-and-dump scheme by principals of a company called Cool Holdings.
“Our clients tracked the promotion of the company’s stock on the internet and wrote articles for an established online journal that specialized in identifying potentially fraudulent investments,” said David Shapiro, a partner who handles whistleblower complaints. “After filing multiple Tips, Complaints, and Referrals (TCR) forms, the firm marshaled the evidence and filed a formal whistleblower complaint.”
Attorneys at The Norton Law Firm also followed up with trial lawyers at the SEC’s New York office when they determined that the SEC had filed a civil complaint against Cool Holdings’ principals, but had not received the whistleblower’s complaint and evidence. The SEC asked the clients to cooperate in its litigation. “Our clients’ work, along with our advocacy to marshal the evidence, helped the SEC reach a settlement with the defendants in the case,” Shapiro said.
Why the Whistleblowers Received the Maximum 30% Award
Under SEC rules, whistleblowers with high-quality original information may receive between 10% and 30% of money collected in SEC enforcement actions where over $1 million in sanctions are ordered.
In this case, the clients were early reporters, submitted multiple TCR filings, and provided important original information that significantly assisted the SEC’s litigation.
“This matter is part of our work with stock market skeptics who do the challenging work of investigating companies and corporate managers engaged in questionable accounting or business actions,” said Partner Fred Norton. “The work often requires many hours of online and hard paper copy reviews of public information that many stock market analysts ignore.”
The Norton Law Firm regularly represents short-biased analysts and journalists who are part of a small community of financial investigators who keep the market honest. “These analysts are sometimes attacked for their work, and we have successfully represented clients falsely accused of defamation and who corporate managers target to deflect attention from their own wrongful conduct,” Norton said.
To support this important work, The Norton Law Firm offers clients a sliding scale of contingency fee agreements to help provide their reporting and whistleblowing work to authorities. The firm’s attorneys have years of experience in SEC whistleblower cases, and frequently represent short sellers as advisors and in litigation. In this case, Shapiro drew upon his experience as a white-collar prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco between 1995 and 2002. Since leaving the government in 2002, he has defended individuals and corporations in civil and criminal accounting fraud cases.