2021 was another blockbuster year in the whistleblowing and retaliation arena. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Office of the Whistleblower has now issued in excess of $1 billion in whistleblower bounties.
Meanwhile, courts continued to grapple with the parameters of the protections afforded by the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank and False Claims Acts. This is of critical importance to employers because claims invoking those statutes continue to present notable financial risks and exceptional reputational risks, as they often implicate serious compliance issues.
We also saw important legislative advancements that expanded protections to whistleblowers. In short, this remains an area that in-house counsel and human resources and compliance professionals need to monitor and continue to adapt to.
Here are the top 10 whistleblowing and retaliation events of the past year.
10. Theranos whistleblower testified at Elizabeth Holmes' jury trial.
On Sept. 8, 2021, the highly anticipated criminal trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes began before a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.[1] Federal prosecutors accused Holmes of defrauding investors and duping patients about the efficacy of Theranos' supposedly revolutionary blood testing technology.
The trial featured the testimony of Erika Cheung, a former Theranos lab technician who had blown the whistle regarding the ineffectiveness of Theranos'...
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) will pay more than $17 million to settle allegations it violated federal anti-discrimination rules tied to government contracts, the U.S. Department of ...