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 to be aware about this misconduct.
Because the whistleblower helps the State, he or she gets usually awards and protection. Indeed, he or she could win to 10 at 20% from the money recovered by the authorities. Moreover, the whistleblower is protected by the law from retaliation; the company could not fire him or her, for example, or retaliate by reducing their wage or offering them less work.
However, the conditions to have the protection against retaliation can be strict strict. In a recent case, the federal judge said the Act is unambiguous, so if the whistleblower wants the protection from this Act, he has to inform the authorities and the SEC. Actually, the Dodd-Franck Act concerns Wall Street reform and consumer protection. Thus, if you are aware of misconduct by a company or your employer, any missteps in revealing your knowledge can impact your ability to file a qui tam lawsuit or protect yourself from retaliation.
Now, to get the protection against retaliation, we have to be aware if the Dodd-Frank Act and Sarbanes-Oxley Acts apply and do not forget to warn the SEC if it does. But the smart decision is to contact an attorney who handles the whistleblower cases to have the best advices on this matter.
If you know of any fraud executed by your company, or others and you could be a whistleblower, contact the Evans Law Firm at (415) 441-8669, or by email at info@evanslaw.com. Evans Law Firm handles qui tam and whistleblower cases, as well as, healthcare, insurance, annuity, banking fraud, financial or physical elder abuse and nursing home abuse.
