Becton Fair Fund (BDX)

Buying BDX is not enough. The Becton Fair Fund is the SEC distributing a $175,000,000 civil money penalty to investors who bought Becton, Dickinson and Company common stock (BDX) between February 5, 2019 and February 5, 2020. The Claims Bar Date is December 13, 2026. Five things decide whether this page is worth your time, and the first two rule out a large share of the people who will land here. First, this is not a class action. It is a Fair Fund created under Section 308(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act out of a penalty BD paid in an SEC administrative proceeding. There is no plaintiffs' class, no class counsel, no opt-out right, no objection process and no court fairness hearing. The Commission approved the Plan of Distribution on July 16, 2026, and the Commission-appointed Fund Administrator, JND Legal Administration, now decides eligibility. Second, buying BDX in that window is not the test. Your transactions must produce a Recognized Loss under the Plan of Allocation, and your computed payment must reach the $20.00 Minimum Distribution Amount. Investors who sold before the February 6, 2020 Alaris announcement cut about 12 percent off the share price, or who finished ahead on their BDX positions, can have fully qualifying purchases and still calculate to zero. Third, common stock only — BDX options, BD bonds and every other BD security are outside the Security as the Fair Fund defines it. Fourth, the $175,000,000 is the gross fund. Payments come from the Net Available Fair Fund after fees, expenses and taxes, and no per-share or per-claimant estimate has been published — unlike the securities class actions on this site. Fifth, if you were already paid in the private BD securities class action over the same Alaris disclosures, you may still file, but the Plan's Offset for Prior Recovery applies to every Distribution Payment. Brokerage documentation is required for every transaction and holding you report, and the Schedule of Transactions reaches to May 5, 2020 — past the end of the qualifying window.

Do I Qualify?

You may be eligible if:

• You purchased or otherwise acquired Becton, Dickinson and Company common stock, symbol BDX, at some point from February 5, 2019 through February 5, 2020, both dates inclusive. This is the Relevant Period, and purchases outside it do not qualify
• It was common stock. BDX option contracts, BD bonds and notes, and any other BD security are not the Security the Fair Fund pays on, and holding them produces nothing here
• You suffered a loss that registers as a Recognized Loss under the Plan of Allocation at Exhibit A to the Commission-approved Plan. This is the decisive filter and it is not satisfied by having bought in the window — an investor who sold before the February 6, 2020 announcement, or who came out ahead across their BDX positions, can calculate to zero
• Your computed Distribution Payment reaches the $20.00 Minimum Distribution Amount. Below that, nothing is paid and the money is redistributed to other eligible claimants
• You are not an Excluded Party. That bars BD itself; present and former BD officers and directors along with their assigns, creditors, heirs, distributees, spouses, parents, dependent children and controlled entities; employees or former employees of BD or its affiliates terminated for cause or who resigned in connection with the conduct in the Order; anyone criminally charged as of the Claims Bar Date in connection with that conduct or a related Commission action; any entity BD controls or controlled; the Fund Administrator and those assisting it; and anyone who bought another person's right to recover from the fund for value
• You can document it. Every transaction and holding you report needs broker confirmation slips, brokerage account statements, or an authorized statement from your broker. Undocumented claims may be rejected
• You are the beneficial owner. If a nominee or brokerage firm was the record owner, you still qualify — the beneficial owner is the one who signs, not the firm
• You do NOT need to live in any particular state. No residency or geographic requirement appears in the Plan
• You do NOT need to have avoided the related BD securities class action. Prior recovery is not an Excluded Party ground, so an otherwise eligible investor may file — but the Offset for Prior Recovery will be applied to the payment
• You do NOT need to have received a Plan Notice. Receiving one does not establish eligibility and not receiving one does not establish exclusion
• You do NOT need to opt out of, or object to, anything. A Fair Fund has no opt-out and no objection mechanism, so the Claims Bar Date is the only deadline that exists

Documentation is mandatory for every transaction and holding you report. The Claim Form requires supporting records such as broker confirmation slips, brokerage account statements, an authorized statement from your broker reporting your transactions, or similar documents. The Fund Administrator does not have your trading history. Failure to supply the documentation may result in rejection of your claim. If the records are no longer in your possession, request copies or equivalent documents from your broker. The records you need reach past the qualifying window. Only purchases from February 5, 2019 through February 5, 2020 can qualify, but the Schedule of Transactions calls for your BDX holdings at the opening of trading on February 5, 2019, every purchase, acquisition and sale — free receipts and free deliveries included — from February 5, 2019 through May 5, 2020, and your holdings at the close of trading on May 5, 2020. Report every one of them regardless of whether the trade resulted in a profit or a loss. The Claim Form states that failure to report all transaction and holding information for the requested period may result in rejection, so a schedule listing only the trades you think help you is a way to lose the claim. Two handling rules are easy to breach. Do not send original documents — they are not returned, so send copies and keep your own. And do not use a highlighter on the Claim Form or on any supporting document. Signatures are part of the proof. The Claim Form is signed under penalty of perjury by the beneficial owner, not by the brokerage firm that held the shares in its name. Joint beneficial owners must each sign and both names must appear in the Claimant Identification section. An agent, executor, administrator, guardian or trustee must expressly state the capacity in which they are acting and provide proof of authority, and a third-party filer handling managed accounts must submit proof of authority and use the Fund Administrator's required electronic file layout. A deficient claim is not necessarily a dead claim. The Fund Administrator reviews every claim, and a claimant whose Claim Form is deficient or ineligible may receive a Claim Status Notice explaining why and describing the opportunity to cure. Distributions are made only after all timely claims have been processed and every rejected or partly rejected claimant has been notified and given that chance. The Plan of Distribution, the Plan of Allocation at Exhibit A and the Plan Notice are all on the Important Documents page of the official Fair Fund website, and questions go to the Fund Administrator at 1-866-910-1105 or Info@BectonFairFund.com — not to any court.

What Happened?

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) sells the Alaris infusion pump, a hospital device that, according to the SEC's Order, contributed roughly 10 percent of BD's profits. The Commission found that from 2016 to early 2020 BD understood the pump required new FDA clearance to address historical changes to the device and to fix multiple software flaws that posed safety risks to patients.

The Commission found that BD misrepresented those risks to investors and failed to disclose the risk that the FDA would prohibit Alaris sales until BD obtained new clearance and fixed the software. The Commission also found BD overstated its income by failing to properly account for the costs of fixing the device.

On February 6, 2020, BD held an earnings call revising its full-year financial guidance, disclosing that the Alaris pump needed new 510(k) clearance from the FDA, and saying it would cease selling the device until that clearance was granted. BD shares fell about 12 percent that day. February 5, 2020 is the last day of the Relevant Period precisely because it is the last trading day before that call — shares bought afterward were bought at a price that already reflected the news.

On December 16, 2024 the Commission issued an Order instituting and simultaneously settling cease-and-desist proceedings against BD, in <em>In the Matter of Becton, Dickinson and Company</em>, Admin. Proc. File No. 3-22361 (Securities Act Release No. 33-11344). The Order found violations of Sections 17(a)(2) and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and of Sections 13(a), 13(b)(2)(A) and 13(b)(2)(B) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 along with Rules 13a-1, 13a-11, 13a-13 and 13a-15.

BD consented to the Order without admitting or denying the Commission's findings, and the matter was resolved on a cease-and-desist basis rather than through a court judgment. The Commission ordered BD to pay a $175,000,000 civil money penalty and established a Fair Fund under Section 308(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 so the penalty could be distributed to harmed investors. The money sits in a Commission-designated interest-bearing account at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The administration then moved in stages. The Commission appointed Miller Kaplan Arase LLP as Tax Administrator on September 23, 2025 (Release No. 34-104024) and JND Legal Administration as Fund Administrator on February 17, 2026 (Release No. 34-104853). It published the proposed plan of distribution for a 30-day comment period on April 24, 2026 (Release No. 34-105310), then approved the final Plan of Distribution on July 16, 2026 (Release No. 34-105932).

The Plan Notice and Claim Form went out after that approval, and the December 13, 2026 Claims Bar Date is the first hard deadline investors face in a matter whose underlying enforcement action closed nearly two years earlier. No court approval step remains, because no court is involved.

A separate private securities class action was brought over the same Alaris disclosures and has already paid class members. The Plan states that its allocation method is substantially similar to the court-approved methodology developed in that case, and it subjects every Fair Fund Distribution Payment to an Offset for Prior Recovery. The two matters are distinct proceedings with distinct claim processes, and this page concerns only the SEC Fair Fund.

How to File Your Claim

1. File through the official Becton Fair Fund website at www.bectonfairfund.com, run by Commission-appointed Fund Administrator JND Legal Administration. The File a Claim page offers three routes. The Individual Claim Portal is for a person or entity filing for a single account. The Institutional Claims Filing Portal is for institutions, claim preparers and similar entities filing for many accounts or large transaction volumes, and third-party filers must use the Fund Administrator's required electronic file layout and submit proof of authority for managed accounts. A Claim Form can also be downloaded from the same page and mailed to Becton Fair Fund, c/o JND Legal Administration, PO Box 91229, Seattle, WA 98111. THE DEADLINE MEANS DIFFERENT THINGS DEPENDING ON HOW YOU FILE. Online submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. EST on December 13, 2026. A Claim Form sent by First Class Mail must be POSTMARKED by December 13, 2026. A form sent by any other delivery method must be RECEIVED by the Fund Administrator by that date. December 13, 2026 falls on a Sunday, which matters to anyone relying on a postmark
2. filing online removes the question. REPORT A WIDER WINDOW THAN THE ONE THAT QUALIFIES. Only purchases from February 5, 2019 through February 5, 2020 can qualify, but the Schedule of Transactions demands your BDX holdings at the opening of trading on February 5, 2019
3. every purchase, acquisition and sale — including free receipts and free deliveries — from February 5, 2019 through May 5, 2020
4. and your holdings at the close of trading on May 5, 2020. Report all of it whether a trade made money or lost it. The Claim Form warns that leaving out transaction or holding information can get your claim rejected. FILE ONE FORM PER LEGAL ENTITY: separate forms for an individual account, a joint account, an IRA and an account held for a minor, but a single form covering every account one person or one corporation holds in the same name. Joint owners must each sign, and their names must appear in the Claimant Identification section. The beneficial owner signs, not the brokerage firm that held the shares in its name. An agent, executor, administrator, guardian or trustee signing for someone else must expressly state that capacity and furnish proof of authority. The form is signed under penalty of perjury. Send copies rather than originals, since submitted documents are not returned, and do not use a highlighter on the form or on any supporting document. THERE IS NO OPT-OUT AND NO OBJECTION DEADLINE because a Fair Fund has neither mechanism, so December 13, 2026 is the only hard date on this page. A claimant who misses it may be barred from any payment. CONFIRM YOUR CLAIM LANDED. A claim filed through the Individual Claim Portal shows a claim number on the confirmation page after you submit — keep it. A claim mailed in or filed through the Institutional Claims Filing Portal is acknowledged by email or postcard within 60 days of the postmark date, and the Fund Administrator says such a claim is not deemed submitted until that acknowledgement arrives. If nothing reaches you within 60 days, contact the Fund Administrator at 1-866-910-1105 or Info@BectonFairFund.com. BROKERS, BANKS AND OTHER NOMINEES who bought BDX during the Relevant Period for a beneficial owner must, within 14 calendar days of receiving the Plan Notice, either send a Claim Form to those beneficial owners or give the Fund Administrator those owners' last known names and addresses.
5. Visit the official claim form: https://www.bectonfairfund.com/claim

How Much Will I Actually Get?

A share of the $175,000,000 Becton Fair Fund, sized by your Recognized Loss. NO PER-SHARE OR PER-CLAIMANT ESTIMATE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED, which sets this apart from the securities class action settlements on this site, where the notice usually prints an estimated recovery per share. Neither the Plan Notice nor the Fair Fund website offers one, so anyone quoting you a BDX per-share figure is guessing. Your payment depends on your own Recognized Loss and on the combined Recognized Losses of every eligible claimant, and that total cannot be known until all claims are processed. THIS IS NOT THE PICK-A-PAYMENT STRUCTURE USED ON MUCH OF THIS SITE. There is no menu, no election and nothing on the Claim Form that selects a payment track. The Plan describes two outcomes, and which one applies is decided by the size of the fund against the size of all claims, not by you. If the Net Available Fair Fund equals or exceeds the sum of the Recognized Losses of all eligible claimants, each eligible claimant is paid their full Recognized Loss plus any Reasonable Interest awarded. If it falls short, each eligible claimant is paid their Pro-Rata Percentage of the Net Available Fair Fund. Both branches run the same claim through the same Plan of Allocation; the branch is a function of arithmetic across the whole claimant pool. THE $175,000,000 IS THE GROSS FUND, NOT THE PAYOUT POOL. That figure is the civil money penalty BD paid to the Commission, deposited with the U.S. Treasury in an interest-bearing account, plus accrued interest and any additional funds received under the Order. What is actually distributed is the Net Available Fair Fund — what remains after the fees, expenses, taxes and other deductions the Plan specifies. The Plan publishes no dollar figure for those deductions, so the gap between the headline and the pool is not quantifiable from the public documents. TWO REDUCTIONS APPLY NO MATTER WHICH BRANCH YOU LAND IN. Every Distribution Payment is subject to the Offset for Prior Recovery, which matters most to investors already paid in the related private securities class action over the same Alaris disclosures, since the Plan says its allocation method is substantially similar to that case's court-approved methodology. And every Distribution Payment must clear the $20.00 Minimum Distribution Amount: a payment that calculates below $20.00 is not made, and that money goes to the other eligible claimants instead. The $20.00 figure is a floor on your final computed payment, not a cap on anything, and no per-claimant ceiling appears in the Plan. NO PAYMENT DATE EXISTS YET. Distribution happens only after every timely claim has been processed and every rejected or partly rejected claimant has been notified and given the chance to cure. The Fund Administrator has said processing will take a significant amount of time and has announced no distribution date. Tell the Fund Administrator in writing if your name or address changes before payments go out.

Last reviewed: October 1, 2026 | Information verified from court records and official settlement documents.

Frequently Asked Questions