By Ada W. Dolph, Adam R. Young, and Craig B. Simonsen
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of the Whistleblower (Office) recently released its 2015 Annual Report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program (Report) (November 16, 2015).
In Fiscal Year 2015 alone, the Commission paid more than $37 million to reward eight whistleblowers for their provision of original
Continue Reading SEC Whistleblower Report Shows Increase in “Tips”
By Ada W. Dolph and Robert T. Szyba
Earlier this week, employers in the Garden State saw another glimmer of hope for defending against frivolous claims brought under New Jersey’s whistleblower statute, the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”), N.J.S.A. 34:19-1 et seq.
As you may recall, much of our CEPA reporting lately has focused on recent court decisions affirming the
Continue Reading New Jersey Court Affirms $192,000 Fee Award Against Whistleblower Plaintiff
By Ada W. Dolph and Craig B. Simonsen
Whistleblowers continue to reap extraordinary awards under Dodd-Frank’s “bounty” program in exchange for bringing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “original” information that leads to a successful enforcement action. Most recently, the SEC announced its third-highest award since Dodd-Frank was enacted — an award of “more than $3,000,000” — to one such
Continue Reading SEC Announces Third-Largest Dodd-Frank Bounty Award
By Ada W. Dolph and Craig B. Simonsen
Hailed as “another achievement” for the government’s Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (referred to as “HEAT”), the U.S. Department of Justice has announced that a Florida skilled nursing company and its former president and executive director will pay $17 million to resolve allegations that the company violated the False
Continue Reading Record $17M Settlement Of False Claims Act Lawsuit Alleging Doctor Kickbacks
By Robert T. Szyba and Jade Wallace
In a pivotal decision with broad implications for aspiring New Jersey whistleblowers, yesterday the New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed the Appellate Division’s finding that no qualified privilege exists to protect an employee from criminal prosecution for taking confidential documents from her employer under the guise of gathering evidence for an employment lawsuit.
By Christopher Robertson, Gena Usenheimer and Needhy Shah
Last week, the Second Circuit heard oral arguments in Berman v. Neo@Ogilvy, a case that places squarely before the Court the question of who is a “whistleblower” within the meaning of the Dodd-Frank Act Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”).
As we have discussed in our previous posts,
Continue Reading Second Circuit Tackles “Whistleblower” Protection Under Dodd-Frank
OSHA released an updated version of its Whistleblower Investigations Manual (CPL 02-03-005) on May 21, 2015–the first update since September 2011.
The manual now reflects procedures for investigating MAP-21 whistleblower claims (protecting workers who report defects in automobiles), as well as substantive changes to Chapter 6 which covers settlement agreements and remedies.
One of the most significant
Continue Reading OSHA Publishes New Whistleblower Investigations Manual
By Ada W. Dolph
In a post-script to the SEC’s April 1 cease and desist order penalizing KBR, Inc. for a confidentiality statement that failed to carve out protected federal whistleblower complaints (our alert on it here), SEC Office of the Whistleblower Chief Sean McKessy today made additional comments that suggest public companies as well as private companies that
Continue Reading Aggressive Enforcement Efforts Will Continue After KBR, Per SEC Whistleblower Chief
By Ada W. Dolph, Christopher F. Robertson and Robert Milligan
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced today that it had made good on its prior promises to take a hard look at employment agreements and policies that could be viewed as attempting to keep securities fraud complaints in-house. In KBR, Inc., Exchange Act Release No. 74619 (April 1, 2015), the agency announced an enforcement action and settlement with KBR in which KBR agreed to amend its Confidentiality Statement to provide further disclosures to employees regarding their right to communicate directly with government agencies, notify KBR employees who had signed the Statement in the past, and pay a $130,000 civil penalty.
The SEC concluded that KBR’s Confidentiality Statement violated SEC Rule 21F-17, adopted by the SEC after the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was enacted in 2010. SEC Rule 21F-17 provides that “[n]o person may take any action to impede an individual from communicating directly with the Commission staff about a possible securities law violation, including enforcing, or threatening to enforce, a confidentiality agreement . . . with respect to such communications.”
Continue Reading SEC Cracks Down on Agreement Requiring In-House Reporting of Fraud Complaint
As we have reported previously, federal courts are currently split on the question of whether the anti-retaliation provisions of the federal Dodd-Frank Act (DFA) apply to employees who disclose their employer’s alleged securities violations to company officials but do not report the claimed violations to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Just in May 2014,
Continue Reading Federal Court Split Continues Over Who Qualifies as a “Whistleblower” Under Dodd-Frank