- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2023-10-31T12:55:00
What should your company be doing in response to increased enforcement emphasis by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding violations of its whistleblower protection rule?
Problematic and prohibited wording can exist in nondisclosure agreements, confidentiality agreements, employee onboarding agreements, voluntary or involuntary termination agreements, and in severance documents that an employee must sign to receive compensation or payments, among other documentation.
Consider the recent enforcement case against investment firm D.E. Shaw & Co., which agreed to pay a $10 million fine in September to settle charges it included prohibited clauses in certain types of employment agreements. The penalty was the largest ever assessed against a company for violating the whistleblower rule (Rule 21F-17), remarked SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal.
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A subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase will pay an $18 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly violating the agency’s whistleblower protection rule in hundreds of settlement agreements with clients and customers.
With a moving target for compliance under the EU’s Whistleblower Directive, the opportunity exists for companies to set their own standards on whistleblowing and engender greater trust among employees, according to a panel at Compliance Week’s Europe conference in London.
Most of the whistleblower tips received by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in fiscal year 2023 related to fraud and misappropriation of crypto/digital assets.
USAA Federal Savings Bank has been hit with its third cease and desist order from the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the past five years for failing to correct unsafe and unsound banking practices.
Becton Dickinson medical device company will pay $175 million for “repeatedly” misleading investors about its Alaris infusion pump, a product the company knew was flawed and was sold without the required patient-safety approvals, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged bankrupt fashion retailer Express with failing to disclose nearly $1 million in perks to a former chief executive, but did not levy a financial penalty thanks to its cooperation, the SEC said.
