- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Jeff Dale2024-02-09T20:27:00
In a unanimous decision Thursday, the Supreme Court reaffirmed whistleblower protections guaranteed under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
The case, Murray v. UBS Securities, centered around the termination of former UBS analyst Trevor Murray, who was tasked with writing independent research reports on UBS’s commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). Murray blew the whistle after he alleged he was pressured to write reports in a way that favored UBS’s products and sales strategies.
In its ruling, the court said whistleblowers don’t have to prove they were terminated because of “retaliatory intent”—a decision expected to set a precedent that impacts all corporate internal reporting cases in favor of whistleblowers.
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The U.S. Supreme Court extended the statute of limitations for businesses attempting to challenge some federal regulations, allowing regulated entities a longer timeline to appeal a decision.
The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to reaffirm whistleblower protections under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a case involving UBS has wide ramifications in many other industries beyond financial services, according to legal experts.
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.
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.
