- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Jeff Dale2024-07-25T17:36:00
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is warning companies against intimidating potential whistleblowers by forcing them to sign broad nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) to deter misconduct from coming to light.
“Companies should not censor or muzzle employees through [NDAs] that deter whistleblowers from coming forward to law enforcement,” said Rohit Chopra, CFPB director, in a press release Wednesday.
In an accompanying circular, the CFPB said companies using NDAs or confidentiality agreements that forbid sharing information with third parties “to the extent permitted by law,” technically permits whistleblowing, but creates a chilling effect on employees who fear the consequences of violating NDAs.
THIS IS MEMBERS-ONLY CONTENT. To continue reading, choose one of the options below.
News and analysis for the well-informed compliance or audit exec. Select an option and click continue.
Annual Membership $499 Value offer
Full price one year membership with auto-renewal.
Membership $599
One-year only, no auto-renewal.
Anonymous employees of OpenAI accused the company of requiring employees to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) that “prohibited and discouraged” them from reporting securities law violations to federal regulators.
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.
New York-based investment adviser D. E. Shaw & Co. will pay a $10 million penalty to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company raised impediments to whistleblowing by employees.
Two pairs of claimants will receive whistleblower awards totaling more than $98 million and $24 million, respectively, for information they provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission that led to an enforcement action.
Discrimination against whistleblowers in the U.K. has risen to such a level that the government may need to actively pursue plans to afford greater legal protection, as well as introduce financial awards to compensate for their “career suicide.”
The Department of Justice released the details of its long-awaited corporate whistleblower awards pilot program that will prioritize reporting in areas of corporate crime not currently covered by existing whistleblower programs.
