Whistleblower Claims

“Whistleblowers” have always enjoyed some protections against prosecution, in order to encourage those with knowledge of wrongdoing to come forward and expose the wrongdoers. The enactment by Congress in 2002 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in response to revelations of corporate corruption and calamitous bankruptcies established new civil and criminal protections for whistleblowers. Publicly traded companies are now prohibited from retaliating against employees who report corporate fraud. SOX also prohibits any individual from knowingly taking harmful action against any person for providing truthful information to a law enforcement officer relating to the commission or possible commission of a federal offense.

Since well before SOX, but increasingly following the highly public corporate collapses of Enron, WorldCom, and others, Venable lawyers have advised employers on ensuring compliance with various whistleblower protections.

Venable’s experience includes:

• Defending employers against whistleblower actions, including claims brought under Sarbanes-Oxley, in administrative proceedings before the Department of Labor or court
• Advising employers on the whistleblower protections of Sarbanes-Oxley and the claims procedures established by Sarbanes-Oxley
• Counseling employers regarding compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley’s whistleblower protections
• Conducting internal investigations of whistleblower retaliation claims