Whistleblower Law Blog

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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TweetBen James wrote an article titled DOL Broadly Reads Protected Activity in SOX Case in which he discusses the Brown v. Lockheed Martin Corp. ruling by the DOL where the Administrative Review Board found that Lockheed Martin Corp. violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Andrea Brown, Lockheed employee had complained to management that the vice president [...]

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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 [...]

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TweetRyan Davis wrote an article titled Courts Grapple With In-House Atty Whistleblower Suits in which he discusses how courts have had difficulty deciding a host of thorny issues that arise when in-house attorneys blow the whistle on illegal activity.  These issues often include the scope of attorney-client privilege and confidentiality among other issues, but Jason Zuckerman, a [...]

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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 IRS Whistleblower Office paid a $4.5 million reward under its new Whistleblower Reward Program to an unidentified accountant who discovered a tax liability greater than $20 million at a Fortune 500 financial services firm.  The firm had declined to report the tax liability to the IRS after it was discovered. The whistleblower came forward [...]

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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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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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TweetJason Zuckerman, a principal at The Employment Law Group®, will lecture on “New Developments in Whistleblower Law and Effective Strategies for Prosecuting Whistleblower Retaliation Claims” on November 3, 2010 in Chicago, IL.  New whistleblower provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act and other recently enacted federal whistleblower protection laws will be discussed.  He will also touch on [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) issued a press release and a letter addressed to President Barack Obama substantiating Mr. Russ Daul’s allegations that the Department of Defense (DOD), Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) misappropriated funds.  According to the OSC, DTIC violated the Economy Act, 31 U.S.C. § 1535 by improperly collected fees in [...]

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TweetOn August 13, 2010, The Employment Law Group® filed an amicus curiae brief in Johnson v. Siemens Building Technologies, Inc., on behalf of the Government Accountability Project, National Employment Lawyers Association, and National Whistleblowers Center arguing that Section 929A of the Dodd-Frank Act clarifies and confirms existing law on the scope of coverage under SOX, [...]

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TweetJudge Anderson of the Eastern District of Virginia ordered Nelnet, Sallie Mae, and other defendants in a qui tam whistleblower action to explore potential resolution of Jon Oberg’s claim, which we blogged about here.   One of the defendants, Brazos Higher Education Service Corp., settled the action last week.  The plaintiff is represented by Wiley Rein [...]

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TweetWTOP reports that Nebraska-based Nelnet, Sallie Mae, and several other student loan companies are exploring a potential resolution of a qui tam whistleblower lawsuit brought by TELG client Jon Oberg accusing them of defrauding the federal government.  Jon Oberg, a former Department of Education researcher, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the federal government under [...]

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TweetJustice Procaccini commended the defendant’s counsel and The Employment Law Group® law firm’s attorneys R. Scott Oswald and David Scher for their excellent trial work. With the completion of the O’Neill v. Warwick trial marking Procaccini’s ninth anniversary on the bench, the Warwick Beacon reported that: Procaccini told the court that he loves his work [...]

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TweetA jury for the Superior Court of Kent County in Rhode Island found Warwick Public School District not liable under the Rhode Island Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) for the wrongful termination of Mary Katherine O’Neill, a client of The Employment Law Group®.  School administrators fired Ms. O’Neill following an interview she gave to a local [...]

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TweetOn September 21, 2010, Jason Zuckerman, a Principal at The Employment Law Group® law firm will speak at the ALI-ABA Fall 2010 seminar on the whistleblower provisions of the recently enacted Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which we blogged about here.  Zuckerman will discuss Sections 1057, 922 and 748 of the Dodd-Frank [...]

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TweetOn July 22, 2010, the Warwick Beacon reported on the O’Neill v. Warwick Public School District case in which The Employment Law Group® client, Mary Katherine O’Neill, testified that she was ordered by school administrators to change a top student’s grade.  O’Neill, a music teacher at Toll Gate High School for over 30 years, testified [...]

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TweetThe Providence Journal provided another update on the O’Neill v. Warwick Public School District case which we previously blogged about here.  The Employment Law Group® client, Mary Katherine O’Neill, was cross-examined on Thursday where she continually maintained that she was wrongfully terminated for refusing to lower a top student’s grade. The plaintiff is represented by [...]

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TweetPrincipal Jason Zuckerman of The Employment Law Group® law firm is quoted in an article in BNA’s Daily Labor Report titled “Attorneys Agree Financial Overhaul Bill Has Vigorous Whistleblower Protections” about the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.  The Dodd-Frank Act which we blogged about here, contains [...]

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TweetThe Providence Journal provided an update on the O’Neill v. Warwick Public School District case which we previously blogged about here.  The Employment Law Group® client, Mary Katherine O’Neill, testified on Monday that she was ordered to lower a student’s grade, but refused to do so and was subsequently fired. The plaintiff is represented by [...]

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TweetThe Employment Law Group® Law Firm principals Scott Oswald and Jason Zuckerman published an article in Law360 titled “Whistleblower Provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.”  The article discusses the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.  The article is available here. For more information about The Employment Law Group® [...]

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TweetThe Employment Law Group® law firm is quoted in the lead story in The National Law Journal titled “Financial Reform Includes New Whistleblower Program.”  The article reports on the whistleblower protection provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which we blogged about here.  The article states in part: However, employment and whistleblower [...]

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