Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

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Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

Texas District Court Dismisses SOX Whistleblower Claim for Lack of Employer-Employee Relationship

By Lloyd B. Chinn, Pinchos Goldberg & Alex Downie

June 24, 2020

On June 12, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted a motion to dismiss in favor of the defendant in a SOX whistleblower retaliation case, finding that the alleged whistleblower – a contractor and advisory board member of the defendant – was not an employee of the defendant, as required by SOX. Moody v. American National Insurance Co., No. 3:19-cv-00206 (S.D. Tex. June 12, 2020). Background Plaintiff brought…

Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

CFTC Issues $6 Million Whistleblower Award

By Harris Mufson & Scott Tan

June 19, 2020

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 the Whistleblower Office, Christopher Ehrman, said in the press release that the award reflects the impact of whistleblowers on the Agency’s enforcement program, noting “whistleblowers…

Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

COVID-19 Whistleblower Protection Bill Introduced Into Congress

By Steven J. Pearlman, Lloyd B. Chinn, Pinchos Goldberg & Tony S. Martinez

June 18, 2020

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On June 15, 2020, Senator Kamala Harris and Representatives Jackie Speier and Jamie Raskin introduced the COVID-19 Whistleblower Protection Act (the “Act”), which seeks to provide protections for employees who blow the whistle on employers who misuse federal funds received through various measures enacted by Congress aimed at mitigating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. (The text of the proposed bill can be found here.) Many of the whistleblower protections in the Act echo…

Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

SEC Announces Record-Breaking $50 Million Award to Whistleblower

By Lloyd B. Chinn, Pinchos Goldberg & Dominique Kilmartin

June 5, 2020

On June 4, 2020, the SEC announced a nearly $50 million award to a whistleblower who provided the SEC with detailed, first-hand information that assisted the agency in bringing a successful enforcement action. While tipsters have previously shared a $50 million award, this is the largest amount ever awarded to a single whistleblower under the SEC’s whistleblower program and far surpasses the next-largest individual award of $39 million in September 2018. Jane Norberg, Chief…

Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

Reuters: SEC Eager to Prosecute COVID-19 Misconduct Amid Flurry of Whistleblower Complaints

By Harris Mufson, Pinchos Goldberg & Dominique Kilmartin

May 28, 2020

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 its disposal, the SEC is eager to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 related misconduct. The article discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has incited a wave of…

Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

Pennsylvania Magistrate Judge Recommends Dismissal of SOX Whistleblower Claim for Lack of Protected Activity

By Steven J. Pearlman, Pinchos Goldberg & Heylee Bernstein

May 13, 2020

On May 5, 2020, a Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania issued a report and recommendation recommending that a defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment dismissing a SOX whistleblower retaliation claim be granted, finding that the plaintiff had not engaged in protected activity. Wutherich v. Rice Energy Inc, No. 18-cv-00200. Background Plaintiff was a manager at the defendant-employer, an energy company involved in fracking. In July 2016, Plaintiff…

Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

Whistleblower Claims on the Horizon Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

By Steven J. Pearlman, Lloyd B. Chinn, Harris Mufson, Pinchos Goldberg & Caroline Guensberg

April 20, 2020

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 to see in the near future as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, on April 8, 2020, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration…

Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

SEC Awards Whistleblower More Than $27 Million

By Lloyd B. Chinn & Pinchos Goldberg

April 19, 2020

On April 16, 2020, the SEC announced payment of more than $27 million to a whistleblower who alerted the agency to misconduct that had occurred, in part, overseas. (The order granting the award can be accessed here.) In explaining the reason for its award determination, the SEC noted that the whistleblower had “repeatedly and strenuously raised [his or her] concerns internally.” The SEC noted that it had considered whether the whistleblower had unreasonably delayed…

Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

SDNY Dismisses Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Claim for Lack of Protected Activity and Causation

By Harris Mufson, Pinchos Goldberg & Scott Tan

April 7, 2020

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 technology company who were terminated. Plaintiff alleges that on March 7, 2019, he filed a complaint with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning the conduct…

Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

DOL Decision Confirms Extraterritorial Limits of SOX Whistleblower Provision

By Harris Mufson, Pinchos Goldberg & Dominique Kilmartin

April 6, 2020

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). An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of the DOL recently applied this precedent and dismissed a former in-house attorney’s whistleblower claims because he worked entirely outside…

Proskauer Whistleblower Defense

Blog Authors

Texas District Court Dismisses SOX Whistleblower Claim for Lack of Employer-Employee Relationship

CFTC Issues $6 Million Whistleblower Award

COVID-19 Whistleblower Protection Bill Introduced Into Congress

SEC Announces Record-Breaking $50 Million Award to Whistleblower

Reuters: SEC Eager to Prosecute COVID-19 Misconduct Amid Flurry of Whistleblower Complaints

Pennsylvania Magistrate Judge Recommends Dismissal of SOX Whistleblower Claim for Lack of Protected Activity

Whistleblower Claims on the Horizon Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

SEC Awards Whistleblower More Than $27 Million

SDNY Dismisses Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Claim for Lack of Protected Activity and Causation

DOL Decision Confirms Extraterritorial Limits of SOX Whistleblower Provision

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