Summary :
According to the lawsuit filed by Mr. Barnes in New York Supreme Court on Monday, the SEC granted Mr. Block the whistleblower award in March and he declined to compensate Mr. Barnes for his contribution to the report on Focus Media, which was published in 2011.
The award was connected to a 2015 SEC enforcement action against Focus Media and its chairman and CEO, Jason Jiang, and the second claimant for the whistleblower award was Mr. Barnes, according to SEC documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Barnes told the Journal the two men agreed he would generate content and publish reports under Mr. Block’s name, after Mr. Barnes expressed concerns over potential legal liability, and that they had a handshake agreement to establish a partnership to publish content and short sell Focus Media shares independently.
Mr. Barnes declined to say how much money he and Mr. Block made from shorting Focus Media stock.
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