Assignment 1: Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley
Yvonne A. Jackson
Professor Redman
Strayer University
Legal 500
October 27, 2014

Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley
There are several characteristics of a whistleblower and they work for a vast number of publicly traded companies. A whistleblower is one who reveals wrong-doing within an organization to the public or to those in positions of authority or one who discloses information about misconduct in their workplace and they feel violates the law or endangers the welfare of others, or one who speaks out, typically to expose corruption or dangers to the public environment. Some whistleblowers are altruistically motivated utilitarian if they feel their company is doing something wrong to hurt the environment they feel they must communicate that with executive members. Another characteristic of a whistleblower is they are uninterested in altering their behavior. They see things in their own light and want the corporation to feel as they do and if the company does not the whistleblower are willing to tell. Whistleblowers also allow their own attitudes and beliefs to guide them. In the case of LAWSON ET AL. V. FMR LLC ET AL, FMR LLC was charged with fraud. They were giving their shareholders bad numbers. The employees felt an obligation to bring the wrong doing to the Board of Directors which pushed them aside telling them they were incorrect. Plaintiffs below, petitioners here, are former employees of respondents (collectively FMR); private companies that contract to advise ormanage mutual funds. As is common in the industry, the mutual funds served by FMR are public companies with no employees (Lawson. 2014). Both plaintiffs allege that they blew the whistle on putative fraud relating to the mutual funds and, as a consequence, suffered retaliation by FMR. Each commenced suit in federal court