On August 5, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned a judgment of approximately $1 million awarded to a purported whistleblower after a jury determined in 2017 that the financial institution unlawfully terminated the employee in retaliation for his refusal to change certain aspects of his research reports related to commercial mortgage-backed securities. In narrowing the universe of alleged whistleblowers who may be entitled to relief for retaliation, the Second Circuit held that the trial judge failed to inform the jurors as to the critical burden whistleblowers bear under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: namely, that a whistle-blower must prove that their employer intended the alleged employment action to be retaliatory.
The purported whistleblower was hired by the financial institution in 2011 as a research analyst in the firm’s commercial mortgage-backed securities business. According to the whistleblower, during his time at the firm, individuals from the trading desk routinely pressured him to change his reports to support the trading desk’s business strategies despite the SEC’s requirements related to research independence. At trial, the purported whistleblower argued that there was a “concerted, extended effort” by his managers and colleagues to get him to write skewed assessments of the firm’s mortgage-backed securities business. According to the whistleblower, he was fired from the firm in 2012 in retaliation for telling his direct...
According to a BBC undercover investigation, unregulated immigration advisors are allegedly encouraging people to make false claims of domestic abuse to secure their right to stay in the UK. Right...