Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetRecognizing that robust whistleblower protection is critical to preventing another financial crisis, Congress included in the Dodd-Frank financial services reform bill (H.R. 4173) numerous provisions designed to encourage whistleblowing and to provide robust protection from retaliation.  These provisions create monetary awards for whistleblowers who provide original information to the SEC or CFTC, strengthen the whistleblower [...]

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TweetOn April 6, 2010, OSHA ordered the New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJT) to reinstate a rail worker and pay him over $500,000 for retaliation he suffered as a result of missing work due to a job related illness.  In February 2008, the Complainant witnessed a contractor being electrocuted and burned to death after coming into [...]

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TweetOn April 1, 2010, Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Tureck found that BB&T violated the whistleblower provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and ordered the bank to reinstate Amy Stroupe, awarding her approximately three years of back pay.  Stroupe, a corporate fraud investigator, uncovered a $100 million Ponzi scheme funded in part with $20 million of fraudulent [...]

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TweetThe Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (H.R. 3590) that the House approved on March 21, 2010, creates new whistleblower protections for health care workers and strengthens the coverage of the False Claims Act.  The following is a summary of these provisions and the text of the relevant sections is available here. Section [...]

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TweetOn March 15, 2010, Administrative Law Judge Daniel Leland awarded Cynthia Ferguson over $151,000 including $75,000 in punitive damages, holding that she was terminated in retaliation for refusing to drive in hazardous conditions.  On a cross country trip, Ferguson encountered extremely inclement weather approaching Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Ferguson observed a truck [...]

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TweetOn March 17, 2010, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered Tennessee Commerce Bank to reinstate a former chief financial officer and pay more than $1 million for violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  Former CFO George Fort filed a complaint with OSHA on April 4, 2008 alleging that the bank terminated him in retaliation for [...]

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TweetOn March 8, 2010, Judge Anderson issued an opinion broadly construing the scope of actionable retaliation under the False Claims Act (FCA), allowing whistleblower Ann Howard to proceed with her FCA retaliation claim in U.S. ex rel. Howard v. Urban Inv. Trust, Inc..  Howard was employed as an accountant for Urban, a property management company [...]

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TweetOn February 18, 2010, the Eleventh Circuit partially overruled a district court’s dismissal of a False Claims Act case.  In US ex rel. Sanchez v. Lymphatx, Inc., an employee brought a False Claims Act action against her former employer for fraudulent Medicare billing practices and retaliation.  She also alleges that she was fired after complaining [...]

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TweetOn December 31, 2009, in a case of first impression, the Fourth Circuit held in Stone v. Instrumentation Laboratory Company that a Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) complainant may seek de novo review in federal court after the complaint has been pending before DOL for over 180 days without a final decision by the Secretary of Labor.  In [...]

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TweetMonday, the DC Council approved the Whistleblower Protection Amendment Act of 2009, which strengthens the DC Whistleblower Protection Act (DC Code § 1-615.51 et seq.) and The Employees of District Contractors and Instrumentality Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998 (DC Code § 2-223.01 et seq.).  The Whistleblower Protection Amendment Act of 2009 eliminates loopholes in the [...]

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TweetOn December 15, 2009, The Employment Law Group® law firm participated in the launch of Voices for Corporate Responsibility (Voices).  Voices is a project sponsored by Grant & Eisenhofer P.A., Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, and The Employment Law Group® law firm.  Its mission is to help and encourage corporate employees to take a stand against [...]

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TweetTom Harrington, an associate at The Employment Law Group® law firm, was quoted in a December 3, 2009 article published by The Raleigh News & Observer.  The article, “Tony Rand accused of insider trading,” discusses accusations of insider trading by Paul Feldman, the former President of Law Enforcement Associates.  Mr. Feldman claims he was unlawfully [...]

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TweetOn November 30, 2009, Judge Jeffrey S. White of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California partially denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss in Galli v. Pittsburg Unified School District.  The Court held that an employee’s wrongful termination constitutes an ongoing violation and that reinstatement is prospective injunctive relief from unconstitutional state [...]

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TweetOn November 19, 2009, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued an interim rule implementing the whistleblower protection provisions of the National Defense Authorization Acts for Fiscal Years 2008 and 2009.   The rule clarifies the scope of protected conduct, sets forth procedures governing Inspector General investigations, and clarifies the removal provision under which a whistleblower can obtain [...]

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TweetOn October 22, 2009, a D.C. Superior Court awarded Colin Browne over $282,000 for his former employer’s violations of the D.C. Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA).  This is one of the highest awards under the D.C. WPA to date.  The award comes after a 5 day jury trial.  We first blogged about the verdict in Mr. Browne’s [...]

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TweetIn a common law wrongful discharge action in which plaintiffs allege that they were terminated for disclosing their supervisor’s unprovoked attacks on Iraqui civilians, the Virginia Supreme Court held that the trial judge erred in instructing the jury that the plaintiff must prove that their former employer’s illegal motive for terminating them was the sole [...]

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TweetThe Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced yesterday the settlement of a whistleblower claim brought by a former Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) against the former U.S. Attorney for Minnesota in which the AUSA will receive back pay, compensatory damages, and a cleared record.  In 2007, the AUSA blew the whistle on the U.S. Attorney failing [...]

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TweetThe Department of Labor (DOL) held that employers are prohibited from retaliating against immigrant whistleblowers under the employee protection clause of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).  The DOL ordered the Fargo Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center to reinstate a doctor and pay him back pay and benefits for violating the employee protection provisions of the [...]

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