A new bill introduced by Republicans in the House is mandating that to be able to qualify for the SEC’s new Whistleblower program employees would have to first notify their firms of possible securities violations before going to the Commission. Commenting on the proposed legislation, which is known as the…
Last week, a whistleblower lawsuit claiming that taxpayers were defrauded when the federal government bailed out American International Group was unsealed. The complaint accuses the Houston-based AIG and two banks of taking part in speculative and fraudulent transactions that resulted in losses worth billions of dollars. They then allegedly convinced…
In an interview with AdviserOne, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro spoke about the agency’s new Whistleblower Office. The office was created per a Dodd-Frank mandate that entitles individuals who voluntarily give the Commission original information leading to an SEC enforcement action and other related actions a reward. Schapiro…
The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut says that ex-UBS (UBS) employee Mary Barker’s whistleblower claim alleging that she was retaliated against for she reporting a purported accounting mistake can move forward. Her Age Discrimination in Employment Act claim, however, was dismissed. Barker, who used to work UBS’s…
Comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposal to implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s whistleblower protections have drawn mixed reactions. While some commenters think that employees of publicly traded companies should have to report alleged wrongdoing to internal compliance programs before they can be eligible…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed that an ex-Nordstrom Inc’s (JWN) technology official’s complaint that her firing violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s whistleblower protections is untimely. According to Judge Milan D. Smith Jr., SOX’s 90-day limitations period started running on plaintiff Carole Coppinger-Martin’s last day on…
Public companies and employers may have to contend with an unlimited number of expensive securities lawsuits under the whistleblower provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which not only includes provisions for an expanded statute of limitations under which employees can sue employers for discriminatory action…
Ilya Eric Kolchinsky, a former Moody’s Investors Service executive, is suing the credit ratings agency for defamation. This is one of the first lawsuits involving a Wall Street company and an ex-employer that blew the whistle on it. Kolchinsky is seeking $15 million in damages in addition to legal fees.…
Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, Wall Street insiders who become whistleblowers may be eligible to receive 10 – 30% of the money that the government gets back. According to National Whistleblowers Center executive director Stephen Kohn, the prospect of collecting millions could provide potential tipsters with the incentive…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission and former SEC attorney Gary Aguirre have settled his wrongful termination lawsuit for $755,000. Aguirre has contended that he was fired in 2005 after accusing his supervisors of mishandling an insider trading probe against hedge fund Pequot Capital Management and trying, without success, to…