Mark Pugsley has been handling securities disputes, financial fraud and whistleblower cases for 28 years. His whistleblower practice includes preparing and filing whistleblower tips with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), he also handles False Claims Act or “Qui Tam” lawsuits, FINRA arbitrations and other types of investment disputes. He has been recognized by Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, Benchmark Plaintiffs, and Martindale Hubbell as one of the top securities lawyers in the country. He is licensed to practice law in Utah and California.
He represents whistleblowers in a number of high-profile ongoing cases, including the whistleblowers in the Washakie Renewable Energy scam in which executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges in a $1 billion biodiesel tax fraud scheme. He also represents a group of whistleblowers who uncovered widespread fraud by the CEO of a publicly traded company that led to SEC and DOJ actions which are currently ongoing. Another of his whistleblower clients uncovered an ongoing $200 million Ponzi scheme that led to civil and criminal actions by the DOJ, SEC and State regulators.
In addition to his large whistleblower practice, Mark has been litigating securities disputes for most of his 28 year career. He has also handled many FINRA arbitration cases in his career, and frequently goes to court to pursue claims for victims of fraud. Prior to founding the law firm of Pugsley & Wood, Mark was a shareholder at the law firm of Ray Quinney & Nebeker in Salt Lake City, where he worked for 23 years. Mark is a recognized expert in the area of securities fraud and has written and spoken extensively on whistleblower law, Ponzi schemes and affinity fraud for many years.
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Mark Pugsley has achieved an AV Preeminent (5.0) rating with Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest rating awarded to attorneys for professional competence and ethics. Mr. Pugsley has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America Tier 1 in Utah for Securities Law since 2008 and was selected as “Lawyer of the Year” for Litigation-Securities in 2015. Mr. Pugsley was also listed as “Lawyer of the Year” for Securities Regulation in 2013. Mr. Pugsley is listed in Mountain States Super Lawyers in the category of Securities Litigation and was ranked as one of its “Top 100” attorneys in 2012. Benchmark Plaintiff lists Mr. Pugsley as “Highly Recommended” for securities litigation, and he has appeared on Utah Business Magazine’s “Legal Elite” listing in the category of Civil Litigation in every year since the list’s inception in 2004.
- Speaker: “How to Spot Ponzi Schemes and Affinity Fraud - And What You Can Do About It” at RQN’s 30th Annual Tax & Business Seminar (October 2019)
- Panel Moderator: “How Receiverships Can Create Additional Recoveries for Victims of Fraud” at the Annual Meeting of the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (October 2019)
- Panelist: “Building Your Own Book of Business: Marketing Yourself and Your Firm” to the Litigation Section of the Utah State Bar (January 2019)
- Panel Moderator: “Law Firm Marketing: What Works and What Doesn’t” at the Annual Meeting of the Public Investor Arbitration Bar Association (October 2017)
- Presentation on whistleblower cases with Jane Norberg, Chief, Office of Whistleblower for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Summer Convention of the of the Utah State Bar (July 2017)
- Presentation: Recent Developments in FINRA Arbitration, Utah Securities Section’s Annual Securities Law Workshop (August 2016)
- Panelist with the Chief of the Office of Whistleblower for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program, sponsored by the Federal Bar Association and the Securities Section of the Utah State Bar (November 2015)
- Presentation on the SEC’s Whistleblower Program at the 2015 White Collar Crime Conference sponsored by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (October 2015)
- Panelist: Civil Penalties in SEC Enforcement Actions - What Practitioners and Corporate Counsel Need to Know, sponsored by the Federal Bar Association and the Securities Section of the Utah State Bar (April 2015)
- Authored an article titled “Top Ten Ways to Avoid Losing Money in an Financial Scam” For The Enterprise Magazine (July 2014)
- Presentation to the Utah Financial Planners Association: Affinity Fraud; How to Help Your Clients Avoid Being a Victim (January 2013)
- Utah State Bar
- California State Bar
- Federal Bar Association
- American Bar Association
- PIABA
- Salt Lake County Bar Association
- Taxpayers Against Fraud
- National Association of Federal Equity Receivers
- National Society of Compliance Professionals