HR - Whistleblowing

In its Annual Report to Congress on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program, the Securities and Exchange Commission reports that both the number of whistleblower claims and the magnitude of the financial awards stemming from those claims "were record-breaking" in FY 2014. Under the Dodd-Frank whistlebl

Long awaited in Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) whistleblower circles, on October 9, 2014 the U. S. Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB) issued a split 2-1 panel decision in Fordham v. Fannie Mae, ARB No. 12-061, reversing in part and remanding an administrative law judge's post-hearing

On September 22, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Office of the Whistleblower announced that it had issued a $30 million bounty payment to a foreign whistleblower. This award is more than double the amount of any previous payment issued by the Office of the Whistleblower and come

In an ongoing effort by the federal government to encourage Wall Street whistleblowers, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called for greater awards for those who report financial fraud. Speaking on Wednesday at the New York University School of Law, Holder stressed that limits on the amount a wh

The Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have issued a final rule adopting, with some changes, an interim rule that establishes when a federal defense contractor or subcontractor can recover the amount of legal c

On May 12, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling upholding a grant of summary judgment in favor of the employer in Feldman v. Law Enforcement Assocs. Corp.,1 a Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) whistleblower retaliation case filed by the defendant employer's former president and

During a Senate Subcommittee hearing on the adequacy of private sector whistleblower laws, Littler Shareholder and co-chair of the firm’s Whistleblowing and Retaliation Practice Group Gregory Keating urged lawmakers to “consider alternatives to increased penalties and deterrents in the whistleblowin

A recent multi-million dollar settlement of alleged fraudulent billing claims against a hospital highlights the rise of whistleblower activity in the healthcare industry.

David Dubberly was recently featured in Midlandsbiz for his article on Supreme Court Expands Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblower Protection to Employees of Private Companies.

A Florida hospital recently reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to pay $85 million to settle part of a whistleblower lawsuit initiated by a former employee who accused the hospital of illegal kickbacks to its cancer doctors and neurosurgeons, and Medicare fraud. (U.S. et al. v.

Recent activity at the federal level — including a U.S. Supreme Court decision this month and an increase in congressional funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) — points to greater protection for employees who report wrongdoing or violations by their employers. With su

In Lawson v. FMR LLC,1 the Supreme Court massively expanded the scope of the anti-retaliation provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), from 4,500 publicly held companies to millions of private companies that are “contractors,” “subcontractors” or “agents” of a publicly held company. Going forward,

United States employers operating in France often face a dilemma. While they may be bound by the whistleblowing requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act ("SOX") and its Dodd-Frank amendments,1 they also are bound by the data privacy requirements of French law, which can be at odds with U.S. whistleblo

The continuing controversy over whether retaliation claims under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act ("SOX") cover activities outside the United States continues to play out in the courts and administrative bodies. The two leading cases in this area are the First Circuit's ruling in Carnero v. Boston Scientific,

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) 2013 Annual Report to Congress on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program, the agency awarded four whistleblowers a total of $14,831,965.64 during the fiscal year. More than $14 million of that sum was given to a single whistleblower. Under th

On Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act of 2013 (S. 42), a bill that would extend whistleblower protections to employees who report potential violations of antitrust and related criminal conduct. Notably, the measure does not provid

ven though Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act more than three years ago, the basic question of who can claim the anti-retaliation protections of that law are less clear than ever. On one hand, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a growing list

The issue of whether attorneys may "blow the whistle" on conduct they reasonably believe violates securities laws, and thereby collect bounties under federal whistleblower laws, is controversial.

In the last decade, healthcare providers have seen a steady rise in whistleblower lawsuits under the False Claims Act (FCA). A recent settlement out of the Northern District of Florida underscores the high cost of resolving such claims, which typically involve allegations of fraudulent billing pract

The Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have issued a series of interim rules amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement portions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Y