Category: Employment Law

Self-Dealing Lawsuits Mount Against JP Morgan, Price, and Others Fiduciary Self-Dealing Injures Employee/Plan Participants Now, another participant in the JPMorgan Chase 401(k) Savings Plan has sued plan executives alleging that the plan favored JP Morgan investments over less-expensive investment options. That self-dealing, the complaint alleges, violates fiduciary duties under the […]

What Protections are guaranteed to Whistleblowers? A whistleblower is an employee who reports fraud executed by his or her company to the federal authorities or the authorities in California. To constitute a qui tam case, the company has to misappropriate the funds received by the government and the whistleblower has […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Income inequality between older women, luck or fate? The New York Times wrote an article about income inequality between two older women but with two different stories. Everyone thinks retirees do well, spending their money on gifts and presents for their grand-children, on travelling, at events and on […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER In a recent ruling that has implications for whistleblowers filing under the False Claims Act, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision. The ruling should lead to more whistleblowers filing qui tam lawsuits. In this case, United States ex rel. Hartpence v. Kinetic Concepts, […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Qui tam lawsuits are commonly made by whistleblowers under the False Claims Act; law that rewards whistleblowers if they help the government recover funds. Becoming a whistleblower takes courage and patience. Patience is required since qui tam lawsuits are filed under seal, and generally takes a lengthy period […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER On Wednesday, September 17, 2014 at the New York University School of Law, Attorney General Holder proposed an increase in rewards to Wall Street whistleblowers who report financial fraud. His proposal involved providing incentives for witness cooperation in the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) to […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER On August 12, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released its latest amendments to the IRS whistleblower program. The goal of the changes is twofold: increase participation in the program, and improve returns to the United States Treasury. To that end, one of the very first changes was […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER In 2011, the corporate world faced a huge shock – the Securities and Exchange Commission was ordered to create a program by Congress to allow anonymous reporting of securities violations and protection for those who reported misconduct, also known as “whistleblowing.” Whistleblowers no longer had to fear employer […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Courts have lowered the level of proof required by employees who want to report a potential fraud or securities violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley act. The 2nd Circuit recently decided in the case of Nielsen v. AECOM Technology Corp that a new “reasonable person” standard would apply to Sarbanes-Oxley […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER A major federal contractor has been accused of forcing employees to sign confidentiality statements that violate the False Claims Act.  The whistleblower lawsuit was filed recently against Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root.  The complaint was filed with the Justice Department and the Securities and […]