secOn April 25, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a Dodd-Frank whistleblower award of nearly $4 million.  This was the first bounty award that was issued from start-to-finish (i.e. from the preliminary determination stage through final order) since Trump’s inauguration.  To maintain the whistleblower’s confidentiality, the SEC declined to disclose the organization involved.  The agency did acknowledge, however, that the whistleblower submitted “detailed and specific information about serious misconduct and provided additional assistance during the ensuing investigation.”  In its release,  the SEC noted that enforcement actions like this one have resulted in more than $953 million in financial remedies against wrongdoers, and approximately $153 million in awards to whistleblowers. 

On April 12, 2017, the Third Circuit partially revived a former in-house attorney’s whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against his previous employer.  Danon v. Vanguard Group, Inc., No. 16-cv-2881.

Plaintiff, a former in-house tax lawyer, previously raised retaliation claims against the Company in New York State Court under the New York False Claims Act, alleging he was discharged in retaliation for informing senior employees of his belief that the Company was violating certain tax and corporate laws.  The state court dismissed the case based on the plaintiff’s failure to demonstrate that the Company knew he was involved in any protected conduct at the time of his termination.  Plaintiff then filed suit against the Company in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleging whistleblower retaliation in violation of SOX, Dodd-Frank, and the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law.  His claims again were dismissed because the court determined he was precluded from asserting the Company’s knowledge of his allegedly protected conduct (we previously wrote about the SEC’s amicus brief to the district court in support of the plaintiff’s arguments here).