A recent Bloomberg article reports that whistleblower complaints to the SEC have soared as employees have been working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the article, the SEC received 6,900 complaints in the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2020 – a 31% jump from the previous
Harris Mufson
CFTC Issues $6 Million Whistleblower Award
By Harris Mufson & Scott Tan on
On June 9, 2020, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a $6 million whistleblower award to an individual under its Dodd-Frank whistleblower program. The individual was rewarded for voluntarily providing specific, credible, and timely information that led the CFTC to bring a successful enforcement action.
The Director of…
Reuters: SEC Eager to Prosecute COVID-19 Misconduct Amid Flurry of Whistleblower Complaints
A Reuters article published on May 26, 2020 reports that the SEC has experienced an uptick in complaints amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the article, the SEC received about 4,000 complaints from mid-March through mid-May – a 35% increase from the previous year. With an abundance of tips at…
Whistleblower Claims on the Horizon Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
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 related to COVID-19. Such complaints are indicative of the kinds of whistleblower and retaliation claims employers are likely…
SDNY Dismisses Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Claim for Lack of Protected Activity and Causation
By Harris Mufson, Pinchos Goldberg & Scott Tan on
On February 28, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a former chief marketing officer’s claim of whistleblower retaliation under the Dodd Frank Act. Cellucci v. O’Leary No. 19-cv-02752 (S.D.N.Y. 2020).
Background
Plaintiff is one of several former chief executives of a closely-held infrastructure…
DOL Decision Confirms Extraterritorial Limits of SOX Whistleblower Provision
As we previously reported, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Administrative Review Board has twice held that Sarbanes Oxley’s anti-retaliation provision does not apply extraterritorially. See Hu v. PTC, Inc., ARB Case No. 2017-0068 (Sept. 18, 2019); Perez v. Citigroup, Inc., ARB Case No. 2017-0031 (Sept. 30, 2019). …
ARB: SOX Whistleblower Provision Does Not Apply Extraterritorially
By Harris Mufson & Allison Martin on
In a pair of recently issued decisions, the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board (ARB) held that Sarbanes Oxley’s anti-retaliation provision does not apply extraterritorially. Hu v. PTC, Inc., ARB Case No. 2017-0068 (Sept. 18, 2019); Perez v. Citigroup, Inc., ARB Case No. 2017-0031 (Sept. 30,…
U.S. Senate Introduces Bill to Extend Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Protections
On September 25, 2019, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced the Whistleblower Programs Improvement Act (the “Act”), which would extend anti-retaliation protections under the Dodd-Frank Act to internal complaints. The Act mirrors a bill introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this year in direct response to the U.S.…
CFTC Issues $2 Million Whistleblower Award to Individual Whistleblower for Analysis of Market Data
By Harris Mufson & Andrew Sherwood on
On March 4, 2019, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a whistleblower award totaling more than $2 million to be paid to an individual whistleblower, as part of its Dodd-Frank whistleblower program. This award is particularly interesting because the whistleblower “provide[d] critical information through independent analysis of market…
SEC Releases FY 2018 Whistleblower Program Annual Report
By Harris Mufson & Jacob L. Hirsch on
On November 15, 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published its statutorily mandated fiscal year report to Congress covering the agency’s whistleblower program.
The report, which covers the period from October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018, was prepared by the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower (“OWB”) to…