Monthly Archives: November 2014
SEC Will Pay Largest Whistleblower Award Yet
The SEC’s whistleblower office has been in place since 2011, and in that time has handed out nine monetary awards to whistleblowers. It is about to hand out its largest award yet: a minimum $30 million reward to an unidentified whistleblower. At this time, the details of the case have not been made available to […]
Army Attempted to Fire Whistleblower in Unearned Pay Scandal
Kenneth Delano, an Army civilian police officer, recently became aware of a situation in which he claims that other officers on the force were receiving more pay than they had earned. After he alerted his superiors to these actions, the Army attempted to fire him from his position. The United States Office of Special Counsel […]
OSHA Strengthens Local Emphasis on Hazardous Chemical Compliance
Omaha Area Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced a brand-new local emphasis program that will introduce regular health inspections at funeral homes, product and chemical manufacturing facilities, printing facilities and various outpatient care centers. According to Bonita Winingham, the local OSHA director, this new program will allow the agency to […]
Supreme Court Makes Necessary Expansions to Whistleblower Law
The United States Supreme Court recently ruled in the case of Lawson v. FMR, LLC that people employed by a private company that is either a contractor or subcontractor or a public company are to be extended the same protections afforded to whistleblowers under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This 6-3 decision marked a reversal of a […]
Department of Justice Continues to Ignore Wall Street Whistleblowers
Attorney General Eric Holder has spoken a lot about the need for help from whistleblowers who can provide evidence to the Department of Justice about the crimes committed on Wall Street from September 2008 and onward. However, this message appears to fall flat when you consider that over the past few years, the Department of […]
Whistleblowers Now Have More Time to File Whistleblower Claims through NLRB
Under the whistleblower provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), employees typically only have 30 days to file a complaint about employer retaliation. However, OSHA has now reached an agreement with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that will allow OSHA to refer untimely claims to the NLRB’s whistleblower division for its own […]
Texas Supreme Court to Weigh In on Shell Defamation Suit
The Texas Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Shell Oil Co.’s pending defamation case. Robert Writt, a former Shell employee, sued the company for defamation after Shell submitted a report to the Department of Justice about his alleged involvement in committing numerous violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA). It’s an interesting case — […]
SEC Whistleblower Office Reaches Three-Year Anniversary
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Whistleblower has only been open since August 2011, yet it has already made a pretty big name for itself in protecting the rights of whistleblowers and awarding them for their contributions. Within those three years, many whistleblowers have come away with large monetary awards, which […]
Agencies Still Falling Short of Federal Whistleblower Protection Standards
While there are more laws in place than ever before regarding the fair treatment and protection of whistleblowers in the United States, there are still some government agencies that are falling short of complying with the rules outlined in the 2012 Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. The most common compliance issues still at issue include the […]
