WASHINGTON, DC (AttorneyNewswire.com) — July 20, 2010 — Recognizing that robust whistleblower protection is critical to preventing another financial crisis, Congress included in the Dodd-Frank financial services reform bill numerous provisions to encourage whistleblowing and to provide robust protection from retaliation. The bill provides substantial monetary rewards for reporting fraud to the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Whistleblowers who provide original information leading to a recovery of over $1 million or more in fines are entitled to a reward of 10 to 30 percent of the total amount collected, and employees who report wrongdoing to the SEC or CFTC are protected from retaliation.
The bill also strengthens the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by doubling the statute of limitations, allowing a trial by jury, and extending whistleblower protections to employees of subsidiaries of publicly-traded companies. Additionally, the anti-retaliation provision of SOX now applies to employees of nationally recognized statistical ratings organizations such as Moody’s, A.M. Best, and Standard & Poor’s. The bill also creates a new cause of action for employees who blow the whistle about fraud and illegal activity concerning consumer financial products and services, and expands the scope of protected activities under the False Claims Act’s anti-retaliation provision.
According to R. Scott Oswald, an attorney who has litigated some of the leading Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower cases and serves as Managing Principal of The Employment Law Group® law firm, “effective whistleblower protection is critical to preventing another financial crisis. The most efficient way for regulators to uncover financial fraud is to encourage employees with inside knowledge of the fraud to step forward.”
The Employment Law Group® represents employees in whistleblower, wrongful termination, and discrimination cases. For information about the whistleblower provisions in the Dodd-Frank bill, call R. Scott Oswald or Jason Zuckerman at 1-888-603-0983 or by email at inquiry@employmentlawgroup.com.
