On September 30, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted an employer’s motion to dismiss a Dodd-Frank whistleblower claim on the ground that the alleged whistleblower did not complain to the SEC prior to his termination.  The court also granted Plaintiff’s SOX whistleblower claim as against three affiliates of Plaintiff’s employer, holding that Plaintiff had failed to exhaust administrative remedies as to those defendants because he did not specify the…

On September 30, 2020, the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower announced multi-million dollar awards to two whistleblowers who provided the SEC with information that assisted the agency in bringing a successful enforcement action.  (The order granting the awards can be accessed here.)  The larger of the two awards, $22 million, is one of the SEC’s highest awards to date and was awarded to an insider who was the first to alert the SEC of…

On September 23, 2020, by a vote of 3 to 2, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced the adoption of a final rule implementing several changes to its whistleblower program, citing the need to “provide greater clarity to whistleblowers and increase the program’s efficiency and transparency.”  The following addresses the key provisions of the final rule. The Commission Clarifies Its Award-Setting Procedures One of the most notable provisions of the final rule changed how…

On September 14, 2020, the SEC announced payment of more than $10 million to a whistleblower who provided original information to the SEC that led to a successful enforcement action.  (The order granting the award can be accessed here.) In explaining the reason for its award determination, the SEC noted that the whistleblower had “provided extensive and ongoing assistance to the investigative team over the course of the investigation, including identifying witnesses and helping…

On July 16, 2020, the Third Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a former IT analyst’s whistleblower retaliation claim, holding that he lacked an objectively reasonable belief that his complaints implicated one of the enumerated forms of fraud in the SOX whistleblower provision.  Reilly v. GlaxoSmithKline, LLC, No. 19-cv-2897. Background Plaintiff was an IT analyst for the Company, where his duties included maintaining the Company’s AS/400 computer servers and addressing performance and security issues…

On June 29, 2020, the Administrative Review Board (“ARB”) upheld the dismissal of a whistleblower retaliation complaint under Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“SOX”) for failure to file within the 180-day statutory deadline.  Xanthopoulos v. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., ARB Case No. 2019-0045 (June 29, 2020). Background Complainant was an employee of Mercer Investment Consulting, an operating company owned by Marsh & McLennan Companies.  Complainant was fired on October 3, 2017, and…

On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Review Board (“ARB”) held that a complaint about a theoretical violation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank”) does not constitute protected activity under the whistleblower provisions of that statute.  Bryan Horn v. University First Federal Credit Union, ARB Case No. 18-0033 (June 18, 2020). Background University First Federal Credit Union (“UFFCU”) hired Complainant as a…