In a major victory for Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowers, on May 25, 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board (“ARB”) issued a decision that resoundingly reaffirmed the scope of the whistleblower protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“SOX”).  See Sylvester v. Parexel Int’l LLC, ARB Case No. 07-123 (ARB May 25, 2011).  The case rejected many of [...]

 At a public meeting this morning, the SEC adopted long-awaited final rules that govern the Commission’s whistleblower program established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.  The program provides whistleblowers with financial awards if they provide original information to the SEC leading to a successful enforcement action. Despite a vigorous campaign by corporate interests led [...]

With the Securities and Exchange Commission due to vote this week on final rules for its new whistleblower-reward program, lawyers who represent corporate whistleblowers are calling on the SEC to reject business-backed demands to penalize insiders who report securities violations directly to the commission without first using internal compliance programs.  Michael A. Sullivan of Atlanta [...]

The National Labor Relations Board has declared that the nonprofit Hispanics United of Buffalo violated Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act when it terminated five employees for criticizing its workload and staffing conditions on the social networking website Facebook.  In October of 2010 Mariana Cole-Rivera, an employee of Hispanics United, posted on her [...]

In a major blow to consumer rights and to the power of class-action lawsuits to check corporate fraud, the Supreme Court has voted 5-to-4 in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion to allow AT&T to require its customers to waive their right to participate in class-action lawsuits against the company.  Class-action lawsuits are ones in which the [...]

In a 5-3 ruling, the Supreme Court has tightened the restrictions to qualify as a relator under the False Claims Act.  The False Claims Act allows an individual with access to sensitive information regarding their employer’s finances to sue them on behalf of the United States for defrauding the federal government, in what is known [...]

Scott Bloch, Bush Administration head of the Office of Special Counsel, who was removed from office after investigations of improper conduct, has filed a $202 million lawsuit against those who he claims were instrumental in his removal, including top  Bush advisor Karl Rove, former Virginia congressman Tom David, deputy director of the White House Office [...]

The New York Times recently ran a lengthy article flagging a pattern of concern by watchdog groups that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing workplace safety and public health standards in the Nuclear power industry, may not be fit to that task, given close ties between the commission and industry higher-ups.  This [...]