WASHINGTON, D.C. – Empower Oversight filed an amended complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia informing the District Court of additional details regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) bad faith attempts to delay and avoid complying with Empower Oversight’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding conflicts of interest by top SEC officials surrounding …
WASHINGTON — In its lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding transparency around coronavirus sequencing deletions, Empower Oversight filed a motion to set aside a magistrate judge’s premature order in favor of the NIH’s request to seal documents before receiving and considering arguments opposing the request. On July 15, NIH requested that the name of a …
WASHINGTON – In Empower Oversight’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Eastern District of Virginia, Empower Oversight has filed its opposition to NIH’s motion for summary judgment. In its motion, the NIH sought to evade accountability for violations of its legal obligations to disclose documents under FOIA. According to …
Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research (Empower Oversight) launched one year ago this week, on July 2, 2021, as a new nonprofit educational organization dedicated to holding big government and big business accountable and helping whistleblowers report waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct. Here are some of the highlights of Empower Oversight’s accomplishments in our first year. …
WASHINGTON — Empower Oversight and Whistleblowers of America wrote to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough and VA Inspector General Michael Missal as well as nonprofit Veterans Education Success (VES), its board, and key donors seeking action to address findings outlined in the Inspector General’s report entitled, Former Education Service Executive Violated Ethics Rules and Her …
NOTE: The message below was delivered to Members of Congress and their staffs on June 15, 2022. Dear Members of Congress and Staff, After two decades of experience conducting oversight and investigations in both the House and the Senate, I started Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research (“Empower Oversight”) a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization that works …
WASHINGTON — Empower Oversight has filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) seeking to compel it to produce documents related to the VA’s failure to respond to correspondence from Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley. He had requested information about allegations—which have since been confirmed by the VA’s Office of Inspector General—of …
WASHINGTON — Empower Oversight sent a letter to the Office of the Inspector General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC-OIG) requesting a comprehensive review of the SEC’s ethics officials’ failure to properly manage SEC official William Hinman’s potential conflict of interest regarding cryptocurrency issues. The letter describes in detail instructions that the SEC’s Ethics …
WASHINGTON — In a new joint status report filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) argued that Empower Oversight’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit should be delayed while the SEC waits for approval from Simpson Thacher to release documents at issue in the litigation. In its portion of the joint status report, …
WASHINGTON — Empower Oversight received just under 200 pages of emails from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) responsive to its FOIA request for records that could shed light on allegations of conflicts of interest associated with the SEC’s selective enforcement actions involving cryptocurrencies. This comes on the heels of over a thousand pages of documents that the SEC released to Empower Oversight in February. Among …