Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetOn January 5, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a two-year statute of limitations was the appropriate period for assessing the timeliness of an action brought by a private employee alleging retaliation by a former employer in violation of the False Claims Act (FCA). The plaintiff, Michael Riddle, allegefs [...]

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Tweet// Morris Jones of Capital Insider interviewed The Employment Law Group® law firm attorney Adam Augustine Carter on the recent changes in whistleblower and employment law that will affect employees in 2012. The points Mr. Carter makes are that: There are almost 2 million home health aides and in-home care providers working in our country. Now with [...]

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TweetAccording to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Mary Schapiro, the SEC’s new whistleblower program is already providing “significant benefits” one year after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. In a letter sent to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), co-author of Dodd-Frank, SEC Chairman Schapiro argued that recent calls to [...]

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TweetThe Securities and Exchange Commission released its first annual report on the new SEC Whistleblower Award Program, covering the period from the program’s inception on August 12 to the end of fiscal year 2011 on September 30.  During those seven weeks, the Commission received an astounding 334 whistleblower tips from individuals in 37 states, as well [...]

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TweetFollowing the lead of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) adopted finalized rules for its new Whistleblower Reward Program that heavily favor whistleblowers.  Importantly, the rules do not require whistleblowers to first report wrongdoing to their employer; instead whistleblowers may report wrongdoing directly to the CFTC. The CFTC is an independent agency [...]

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TweetThe SEC Whistleblower Reward Program signed into law last year under theDodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is effective as from today, August 12, 2011. As the U.S. economy continues to struggle, compounded by a lowered Standard & Poor’s rating that sent the New York Stock Exchange and European markets spiraling, corporate whistleblower cases [...]

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TweetOn June 30, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled in United States ex rel. Wilkins v. United Health Group  overturned the decision of the lower court and held in favor of whistleblowers Charles Wilkins and Daryl Willis.  The whistleblowers allege that United Health Group (UHG) provided kickbacks to those [...]

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TweetThe DOL Administrative Review Board has issued a very significant en banc decision on the whistleblower provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) that significantly strengthens the statute by clarifying the broad scope of protected conduct.  The ARB’s opinion in Sylvester v. Parexel International LLC, ARB No. 07-123, ALJ Nos. 2007-SOX-039, 042 (May 25, 2011) represents a substantial [...]

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TweetThe Securities and Exchange Commission is being praised by whistleblower advocates for issuing finalized rules that will effectively incentivize employees to disclose fraud and other securities law violations.  The Dodd-Frank Act – enacted in July of 2010 – established a new whistleblower program within the SEC, requiring the SEC to reward whistleblowers who provide original [...]

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TweetThe Securities and Exchange Commission is receiving praise from whistleblower advocates for issuing finalized rules that do not require whistleblowers to report fraudulent or illegal activity internally to their employer, but instead allow whistleblowers to blow the whistle direct to the SEC. The Dodd-Frank Act established a new whistleblower program at the SEC, requiring the [...]

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TweetInvestment News reported that Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y. circulated draft legislation that would require a whistleblower to first report fraud through an internal compliance program as a prerequisite to recovering an award before the whistleblower would be eligible for a reward from the SEC under the whistleblower reward provision of the Dodd-Frank Act.  TELG opposes [...]

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TweetInvestmentNews.com reported that Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., presented legislation that would require whistleblowers to first report fraud trough their employer’s internal compliance program before they would be eligible for a reward from the SEC under the Dodd-Frank Act. During a House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets hearing, the drafters related a concern that whistlblowers [...]

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TweetThe U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a good decision for whistleblowers providing much needed clarity on the scope of the anti-retaliation provision in Section 922(h), which prohibits retaliation for the following acts: (1) “providing information to the Commission in accordance with this section;” (ii) “initiating, testifying in, or assisting in any [...]

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TweetLaura Schreier wrote an article in Banker & Tradesmen titled Dodd-Frank Weighs Heavily on Mass. Whistleblower Case in which she discusses the recent U.S. District Court ruling in Pezza v. Investors Capital Corp. that Section 922(e) of the Dodd-Frank Act applies to pending cases.  Section 922(e) bans pre-dispute agreements in employment contracts that require Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowers [...]

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TweetThe Employment Law Group® attorney Jason Zuckerman was quoted in a Law360 article titled DOL Board Clarifies Scope of Whistleblower Protection regarding the DOL Administrative Review Board’s recent decision in Johnson v. Siemens Building Technologies, Inc.: Jason Zuckerman, a principal at The Employment Law Group®, who filed an amicus brief on behalf of whistleblower advocacy groups, said [...]

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TweetAgreeing with arguments posed by The Employment Law Group® attorneys, the DOL Administrative Review Board (ARB) held that an amendment to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in Section 929A of the Dodd-Frank Act, which provides that Section 806 applies to employees of subsidiaries of publicly-traded companies, was a clarification of existing law and therefore “is not [...]

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Tweet In Pezza v. Investors Capital Corp., Judge Douglas P. Woodlock of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that Section 922(e) of the Dodd-Frank Act, which bans predispute arbitration agreements regarding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) whistleblower protection, is retroactive.  The statutory language is as follows: (e)NONENFORCEABILITY OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS WAIVING [...]

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TweetThe Employment Law Group® attorney Jason Zuckerman is quoted in an article titled Whistle-blower Debate Heats Up on CFO.com regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed regulations for implementing the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.  The Act requires the SEC to provide a monetary reward to whistle-blowers who voluntarily report original information leading to [...]

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TweetIn an article in the Fiscal Times discussing the SEC’s proposed rules implementing the Dodd-Frank Act’s whistleblower provisions, Jason Zuckerman, an attorney at The Employment Law Group® law firm, asserted that all whistleblowers should be permitted to report fraud directly to the SEC: A key point of contention is whether the whistleblower should be required [...]

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TweetJason Zuckerman, principal at The Employment Law Group® law firm, published a Special Feature article in the December 2010 issue of the American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law’s Flash, analyzing the impact of the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act: As described in the August issue of the Flash, the whistleblower provisions [...]

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TweetIn an article about the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Wall Street Journal quotes Jason Zuckerman, a principal at The Employment Law Group®, regarding defense counsels’ complaint that SEC rules do not prevent a whistleblower from both collecting an award under the SEC whistleblower reward program and also seeking compensation through a securities [...]

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TweetIn an article in today’s Wall Street Journal and in a Wall Street Journal blog post, Jason Zuckerman, a principal at The Employment Law Group®, was quoted regarding new regulations proposed by the SEC for its Whistleblower Reward Program: “Whistleblowers should not be required to go to their companies first,” said Jason Zuckerman….  [He] didn’t [...]

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TweetA sign that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seriously committed to routing out corporate fraud, the SEC has set aside $450 million to fund its whistleblower reward program, which was established under The Dodd-Frank Act.  The SEC must reward whistleblowers who file complaints that lead to the recovery of funds.  The Dodd-Frank Act [...]

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TweetJason Zuckerman, a principal at The Employment Law Group®, will moderate a D.C. Bar Brown Bag titled “Dodd-Frank Act: Robust Protections and Substantial Rewards for Whistleblowers” on November 9, 2010.  The panel of speakers will discuss: The whistleblower reward provisions; The scope of the new whistleblower ant-retaliation provisions; The amendments to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and [...]

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TweetJason Zuckerman, a principal at The Employment Law Group®, will moderate a D.C. Bar Brown Bag titled “Dodd-Frank Act: Robust Protections and Substantial Rewards for Whistleblowers” on November 9, 2010.  The panel of speakers will discuss: The whistleblower reward provisions; The scope of the new whistleblower ant-retaliation provisions; The amendments to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and [...]

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