On June 15, 2020, Senator Kamala Harris and Representatives Jackie Speier and Jamie Raskin introduced the COVID-19 Whistleblower Protection Act (the “Act”), which seeks to provide protections for employees who blow the...more
6/18/2020
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Protected Activity ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On June 4, 2020, the SEC announced a nearly $50 million award to a whistleblower who provided the SEC with detailed, first-hand information that assisted the agency in bringing a successful enforcement action. While tipsters...more
In recent weeks, there have been numerous widely reported incidents of employees, particularly those in the health care industry, claiming that they have been retaliated against for reporting health and safety concerns...more
On April 16, 2020, the SEC announced payment of more than $27 million to a whistleblower who alerted the agency to misconduct that had occurred, in part, overseas.
In explaining the reason for its award determination, the...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) recently released its statutorily mandated 2019 Annual Report covering the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2019. The report, prepared by the CFTC’s Whistleblower Office...more
As reported in Proskauer’s Labor Relations Update blog, the NLRB issued an important opinion on December 17, 2019 relating to employer rules requiring confidentiality from employees during workplace investigations. Apogee...more
12/19/2019
/ Confidentiality Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Internal Investigations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRB ,
Rule 21F-17 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Workplace Investigations
On September 19, 2019, the Second Circuit affirmed a New York District Court’s order compelling arbitration of a whistleblower retaliation claim under the Dodd-Frank Act. Daly v. Citigroup Inc., et al., No. 18-665....more
On July 18, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted a defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment on a SOX whistleblower retaliation claim, holding that the Plaintiff did not have...more
8/7/2019
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Cybersecurity ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Investigations ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Summary Judgment ,
Termination ,
Whistleblowers
In a petition for a writ of mandamus filed on April 29, 2019 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, an unidentified whistleblower who claims to have tipped the SEC to alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt...more
On May 24, 2019, the SEC announced payment of more than $4.5 million to a whistleblower who sent an anonymous tip to the company alleging significant wrongdoing and then submitted the same information to the SEC....more
This is an update on our previous blog posts regarding the Erhart v. BofI Holding, Inc. case.
We previously reported in October 2017 and March 2017 on a whistleblower litigation brought by Charles Erhart, a former Bank of...more
On April 29, 2019, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto introduced Assembly Bill A7384, which would amend and significantly expand New York’s whistleblower statute, N.Y.L.L. §§ 740, 741. The identical Senate version of this bill,...more
Per our previous post, the European Parliament and the Member States agreed to adopt new rules that would set the standard for protecting whistleblowers across the EU from dismissal, demotion, and other forms of retaliation...more
On March 26, 2019, the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower announced two multi-million dollar awards to whistleblowers who provided the SEC with information that assisted the agency in bringing a successful enforcement action....more
On March 11, 2019, a federal court in Minnesota rejected an employer’s attempt to litigate a plaintiff’s state-law whistleblower claim in a federal forum, ruling it was insufficient that the plaintiff alleged violations of...more
According to a press release issued by the European Commission today, the European Parliament and the Member States have agreed to adopt new rules that set the standard for protecting individuals who blow the whistle on...more
According to data released by OSHA, the number of whistleblower complaints filed under SOX and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (“CFPA”) declined in 2018. OSHA received 45 complaints under the CFPA in 2018 (down 50% from...more
On February 26, 2019, the Ninth Circuit affirmed much of a jury’s approximately $11M verdict finding that a former general counsel was discharged in retaliation for reporting alleged Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”)...more
3/7/2019
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Reporting ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On February 15, 2019, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the grant of summary judgment in favor of Andeavor Corporation f/k/a Tesoro Corporation on a SOX whistleblower claim, concluding that the plaintiff lacked an objectively...more
On January 8, 2019, the DOL announced Secretary Alexander Acosta’s appointment of three new members to the Administrative Review Board (ARB), filling vacancies that had been open for months, and marking the first appointments...more
On December 21, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California stayed a plaintiff’s whistleblower retaliation claim under SOX (which was not subject to mandatory arbitration) while granting a motion...more
On July 12, 2018, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued its largest whistleblower award ever, approximately $30 million, as part of its Dodd-Frank whistleblower program. This is the first award under the...more
On June 28, 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) voted in an open meeting on several final rules and rule proposals that will have a material impact on the Commission’s whistleblower...more
We previously reported in March and last October on a whistleblower litigation brought by Charles Erhart, a former Bank of Internet Holding, Inc. (BofI) internal auditor. On December 3, 2015, in a separate action, the...more
On April 3, 2018, the Antitrust Division of the U.S Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it had reached a settlement in a matter involving a “no-poaching” agreement between employers—the first such enforcement action...more