By Admin | Published January 15, 2015 | Posted in Employee Rights | Tagged Tags: employee rights, labor and employment | Leave a comment
Minnesota Overturns Precedent By Extending Whistleblower Statute of Limitations
On December 15, the Court of Appeals for the state of Minnesota made a decision that reversed 20 years of precedent by extending the Minnesota Whistleblower Act’s statute of limitations from two to six years. The decision came in a claim made by a former employee of Minneapolis Public Schools who reported financial discrepancies within Read More
Read MoreWhistleblowers on Wall Street Could Earn Share of $425 Million Pot
Since the establishment of the SEC Whistleblower Program, there have been a lot more highly publicized cases of whistleblowers coming forward and revealing wrongdoing within their organizations, specifically in regard to fraudulent activity. Awards through the SEC have been reaching record levels this year, with one person coming away with a $30 million settlement after Read More
Read MoreConsumer Financial Product Whistleblower Claims on the Rise
Since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was enacted in 2010, there has been a significant rise in complaints filed under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), with a corresponding drop of SOX complaints filed through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The total amount of whistleblower complaints has been on Read More
Read MoreJudge Will Allow Dow Whistleblower to File Wrongful Termination Suit
A federal judge is allowing an ex-fraud investigator for Dow Chemical Co. to pursue a wrongful termination claim. Kimberly Wood, who had worked for 25 years at Dow before the company fired her in October, alleges that the company was engaged in significant financial misconduct, specifically major spending by the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Read More
Read MoreWhen Do Reports Not Constitute Whistleblower Actions?
Not all reports of internal wrongdoing are technically considered whistleblower actions. In 2013, the First Circuit Court established an important “job duties” exception related to the Maine Whistleblowers Protection Act. The exception states that employee’s reports are not considered whistleblowing if making such internal reports of wrongdoing is part of the employee’s job. Since the Read More
Read MoreBank of America Whistleblower Wins $57 Million Decision
In what is being considered a record, landmark case, a former bank executive at Countrywide Financial (now owned by Bank of America Corporation) was awarded $57 million for exposing the presence of fraud in the company’s mortgage practices. Edward O’Donnell initially filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Countrywide, accusing the company of defrauding mortgage finance Read More
Read MoreWhistleblower Awarded $175 Million in Trinity Industries Lawsuit
A federal jury determined that Trinity Industries, a Texas-based guardrail manufacturer, must pay $175 million in penalties after a whistleblower alerted authorities to False Claims Act violations by the company. Trinity manufactures many of the guardrails that you see as you drive on highways and roads across the nation. Josh Harman, the whistleblower in the Read More
Read MoreFormer St. Petersburg VA Attorney Files Whistleblower Suit
Javier Soto was at one point a Ratings Benefits Services Representative for the St. Petersburg region office of the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, after he released a report that spoke to the “poor, inept and inaccurate” process of quality control for benefits claims at the VA, he was released from his duties. Now, Read More
Read MoreStudy Shows Companies Face Larger Penalties When Whistleblowers Involved
A recently published study indicates that companies face much larger monetary penalties whenever a whistleblower is involved in enforcement actions against the company. In an average case, those companies paid penalties that were 63 percent higher with whistleblowers than in cases where there was no whistleblower. Data for the study came from information from the Read More
Read MoreSenators Present New Whistleblower Law for Auto Industry
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla) recently presented a new piece of legislation that will protect the rights of whistleblowers within the auto industry, and offer them the potential to be paid millions of dollars in rewards for particular types of cases. The new bill would give the secretary of transportation the Read More
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