On May 17, 2021, the SEC announced payment of more than $31 million to four whistleblowers who provided the SEC with information that resulted in the return of tens of millions of dollars to harmed investors. The largest of...more
On May 10, 2021, the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower announced multi-million dollar awards to two whistleblowers who provided the SEC with information that assisted the agency in bringing a successful enforcement action...more
On March 22, 2021, the Seventh Circuit affirmed a decision by the ARB dismissing a whistleblower retaliation complaint under SOX for failure to file within the 180-day statutory deadline. Xanthopoulos v. U.S. Department of...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) recently released its 2020 Annual Report on the status of its whistleblower program for the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2020....more
On September 30, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted an employer’s motion to dismiss a Dodd-Frank whistleblower claim on the ground that the alleged whistleblower did not complain to the...more
10/27/2020
/ Administrative Complaints ,
Administrative Remedies ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) ,
Digital Realty Trust Inc v Somers ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
OSHA ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Whistleblowers
On September 23, 2020, by a vote of 3 to 2, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced the adoption of a final rule implementing several changes to its whistleblower program, citing the need to “provide greater...more
10/8/2020
/ Amended Rules ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Digital Realty Trust Inc v Somers ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Final Rules ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On September 14, 2020, the SEC announced payment of more than $10 million to a whistleblower who provided original information to the SEC that led to a successful enforcement action....more
On July 16, 2020, the Third Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a former IT analyst’s whistleblower retaliation claim, holding that he lacked an objectively reasonable belief that his complaints implicated one of the enumerated...more
8/18/2020
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Cybersecurity ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Internal Controls ,
Internal Investigations ,
Internal Reporting ,
Popular ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Violations ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
Wire Fraud
On November 15, 2019, the SEC published its annual report to Congress covering the agency’s whistleblower program.
The report, which covers the period of October 1, 2018 through September 30, 2019, was prepared by the...more
On November 4, 2019, the SEC announced that it had filed an amended complaint against online auction portal Collectors Café and CEO Mykalai Kontilai, alleging Kontilai tried to prevent investors from communicating with the...more
11/13/2019
/ Amended Complaints ,
Dodd-Frank ,
False Statements ,
Misappropriation ,
Misleading Statements ,
Rule 21F-17 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Settlement Violations ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On May 8, 2019, the House Committee on Financial Services passed H.R. 2515, the Whistleblower Protection Reform Act of 2019, which would amend Section 922 of Dodd-Frank to extend the statute’s anti-retaliation protections to...more
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 October 22, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss a first-impression whistleblower retaliation claim under the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”). Johnson...more
11/9/2018
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
CFTC ,
Coercion ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Rule 12(b)(6) ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Retaliation ,
Retroactivity ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Spoofing ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On October 2, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania federal court denied a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss a SOX whistleblower retaliation claim, reasoning that Plaintiff sufficiently alleged...more
10/15/2018
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Digital Realty Trust Inc v Somers ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Rule 12(b)(6) ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Protected Activity ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Termination ,
Whistleblowers
On October 2, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania federal court denied a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss a SOX whistleblower retaliation claim, reasoning that Plaintiff sufficiently alleged...more
10/12/2018
/ Dismissals ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Rule 12(b)(6) ,
Form 10-K ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Pleadings ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Whistleblowers
On September 6, 2018, the SEC Office of the Whistleblower awarded $39 million to one whistleblower and $15 million to another. The $39 million award is the second-largest award in the history of the program, behind a $50...more
On May 29, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama granted a motion to dismiss in part Plaintiff’s whistleblower retaliation claims under SOX on the grounds that the Plaintiff failed to exhaust his...more
On February 5, 2018, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Defendant Khan Funds Management America, Inc.’s Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss a whistleblower retaliation claim under Dodd-Frank on the...more
On November 30, 2017, the SEC Office of the Whistleblower issued a bounty award of more than $16 million to two tipsters; each received an award of more than $8 million. The SEC denied awards to five other claimants....more
The Southern District of Florida recently denied a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss a former employee’s Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank whistleblower retaliation claims, finding that the plaintiff sufficiently alleged that she...more
10/24/2017
/ Data Security ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Rule 12(b)(6) ,
GAAP ,
Internal Reporting ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
OSHA ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Whistleblowers
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia recently granted a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss a Dodd-Frank whistleblower retaliation claim brought by an ex-project manager, finding that Plaintiff failed to...more
8/16/2017
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Rule 12(b)(6) ,
Internal Reporting ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Retaliation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Split of Authority ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
Wrongful Termination
The Southern District of New York recently dismissed Dodd-Frank whistleblower retaliation claims brought by an employer’s ex-President and an ex-Director pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) on res judicata grounds, determining that...more
8/12/2017
/ Arbitration ,
C-Suite Executives ,
Dismissals ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Rule 12(b)(6) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Res Judicata ,
Retaliation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On July 27, 2017, the SEC announced that it was paying a $1.7 million bounty award to a whistleblower, even though the whistleblower: (1) had some culpability in the fraud; (2) unreasonably delayed reporting the fraud; and...more
The United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee recently emphasized the limited scope of what constitutes protected activity under the Dodd-Frank Act’s (the Act) whistleblower protection provision,...more
On June 7, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a whistleblower retaliation claim under the Dodd-Frank Act because the plaintiff failed to report his complaint of alleged securities...more