- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2024-07-16T16:48:00
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.
In a July 1 letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, the employees alleged OpenAI’s NDAs also contained language that forced them to waive their rights to whistleblower incentives and compensation, along with requiring them to notify the company of communications with government regulators. The letter was first reported by The Washington Post.
All such language could violate the Dodd-Frank Act and the SEC’s Whistleblower Rule, which require companies to allow employees to report misconduct to federal regulators without any restrictions.
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.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced its second $37 million whistleblower award in as many weeks with four claimants vying for the payout, but only one reaping the benefits.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is warning companies against intimidating potential whistleblowers by forcing them to sign broad nondisclosure agreements to deter misconduct from coming to light.
A whistleblower will be paid $37 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission for providing original, credible information that led to a successful enforcement action.
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.
