...Introduction Whistleblowing refers to disclosure of suspected wrongdoing at work by a worker. All workers have the right and the capability to report inappropriate actions such as illegal transactions and operations or neglect of duties among others. The Sarbanes-Oxley due is a policy that sets the standards for the United States public company offices especially the boards, management and public accounting organizations. The paper describes a whistleblower and provides an example of a whistleblower case. The paper also analyzes the whistleblowers actions according to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. As stated earlier a whistleblower is the individual that tells of an inappropriate action or operation in the organization. Whistleblowers have the following characteristics. Whistleblowers are never interested in changing their behavior or characteristics (Near& Miceli, 1995). Whistleblowers are normally having an educational background and have professional positions in the workplace. The whistleblower is intelligent as such can think through situations clearly and make concise decisions (Near& Miceli, 1985). They are pragmatic and will deal with situations in realistic ways rather than theoretical considerations. They are self-conscious hence not easily carried away by other people’s beliefs and attitudes. Whistleblowers are morally obligated to help others in the best possible manner. They have a high sense of morality (Near& Miceli, 1985). A former Zillow employee Chris Crocker...
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...Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Bianca Martin LEG 500 Law, Ethics & Corp. Governance Strayer University Professor: Keith S. Smith Whistleblowing Whistleblowing has come to describe a wide range of disclosures, both within organizations and outside organizations (Trevino, 2015). Whistleblowing empowers workers to speak up for principles and ethics and shine a light on unethical practices that can cause negative consequences for consumers, citizens and colleagues. Internal whistle blowing can be very valuable for an organization; reports of misconduct, given early and taken seriously, can prevent disaster (Trevino, 2015). Alternately, public whistle blowing has collapsed and shamed many organizations. Research suggests that it’s usually very difficult to report wrongdoing in organizations (Trevino, 2015). Among the main reasons people fail to report are fear of retaliation for reporting, and the belief that nothing will be done. Equally, those who do report say that they did so because they felt supported by managers and coworkers, they believed something would be done, and they were able to report anonymously (Trevino, 2015). For those who do report, most people prefer to handle issues within the organization before venturing outside, and most will go to their direct supervisor first (Trevino, 2015). Recently, protection for certain types of whistleblowing has increased with legislation such as the U.S. False Claims Act, Sarbanes-Oxley and the creation of the...
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...AuditingSection B01DTrimester 3, 2014/2015 | Internal Auditor and Whistleblowing Policies | Group Assignment | | Prepared by:Gabriella Rena Vanessa Darmadji 1121116458Nur Aida Binti Mohd Jasmin 1121118345 | | | Multimedia University Cyberjaya 2015 | INTRODUCTION Fraud negatively impacts organizations in many ways including financial, reputation, psychological and social implications. According to various surveys, monetary losses from fraud are significant. Thus, the organization has to establish an effective fraud management program that also covers the organization response to the whistleblower in the company. It is clear that corporate have major responsibility in their response of complaints regarding accounting, internal accounting control or audit matters where they have to establish audit procedure for the receipt, retention and treatment of complaints. Moreover, the organization has to build appropriate structure of line of reporting for the internal audit to support the effective fraud management program. The report discuss in deep on the Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002 in relation with bursa listing requirement. Furthermore, the whistleblowing also become the main issues on this report. The thorough discussion about what whistleblowing is and the key characteristics to support good whistleblower hotline also is conferred. REPORT Summary and compare the requirements of section 301.4 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002 and compare those requirement with those as required...
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...Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Act Student Name College or University Name LEG500 – Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance Professor’s Title Date Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley The federal government passed and put into law the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) to primarily protect whistleblowers from retaliation for reporting corporate fraud and financial malfeasance to the government. The negligence became apparent in the 1990’s when corporations such as Enron, HealthSouth, Tyco and WorldCom were found to have grossly overstated their earnings. This cost billions of dollars in losses to shareholders and caused the near-collapse of the stock market (Prentice, 2010, p. 17). The companies were able to hide, scam or misrepresent their earnings due to the dot-com boom, soaring investments, and auditor fraud. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act contains many sections, sub-sections and creation of other agencies to enforce it. It was a sweeping change to standard reporting practices and was created to restore investor confidence, hold corporations and auditors financially and criminally accountable, and protect whistleblowers. Prior to the creation of SOX the whistleblower had no protection from retaliation by the organization. Whistleblowers had fears of criminal prosecution, bodily harm and job loss if they reported the misdeeds of their employer both publicly and privately. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 redefined the whistleblower. An examination of the characteristics of a whistleblower...
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...Assignment 1: Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oaxley Due Dana Martin Prof. Christina Williams LEG 500 January 25, 2015 JP MORGAN Chase Bank In February 2014, JP Morgan Chase bank admitted that for over 10 years they were submitting false information about countless amounts of mortgages for insurance by the Federal Housing Administration or the Department of Veteran Affairs that did not qualify for government guarantees (reuter.com). Whistleblower, Keith Edwards was employed with JP Morgan from 2003 to 2008 and was an assistant vice president whom supervised the government insurance unit. After “outing” the helpful information, he was paid $63.9 million for providing tips that led to JPMorgan’s agreement to pay $614 million and tighten oversight to resolve charges that it defrauded the government into insuring flawed home loans. In cases like this, Edwards took on an issue that not only affected the company and those taking part, but the government. In a scenario like this one, if the government steps in to side with the whistleblower it becomes a very strong argument for the person that provides the information leading to seize of such activity. (reuters.com/article). In this case the government took significant losses where they had to cover millions of dollars from evictions and foreclosures nationwide. In 2013, Edwards had originally sued under the False Claims Act, which lets people sue government entities for defrauding taxpayers, but later the Justice Department...
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...Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Assignment 1 LEG 500/Professor Augustine February 3, 2014 A Whistleblower by definition is someone who exposes a person or organization engaged in an illicit activity. Whistleblowers expose those that commit misconduct or an alleged dishonest and/or illegal activity within an organization. The infraction must be a violation of a law, rule or regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, like fraud, health and safety violations and corruption. In almost every part of society the way information is given becomes the most important objective in the fight against misconduct and malpractice. Obtaining information can be difficult as those involved often make it their best interest in hiding the information from the public and authorities. It really helps to receive information regarding the wrongdoing from someone who has actually witnessed the incident, willing to come forth with intricate details. Whistleblowing can provide resolutions to certain situations by opening thought to be nonexistent and disclosed information sources and connections. Reasons behind whistleblowing can vary. Such as, when someone observes the wrongdoing within their workplace and requests to speak to a figure head of the organization to their morals. Whistleblowing becomes a much stronger case when it involves a large portion of the public. The publicly traded company that I researched was the whistleblowing of Bernard L. Madoff Securities LLC. The company...
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...Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Due Gbemisola Salako Dr. Oris Guillaume LEG 500 – Spring/ 2015 April 21, 2015 Question # 1- Describe the key characteristics of a whistleblower, and briefly summarize one (1) researched instance of whistleblowing in one (1) publicly traded company within the last 12 months. Include the details of the issue that the whistleblower reported and the effect of the whistleblower’s actions on both the whistleblower himself and the company. Whistleblowing can be described as an instance whereby an employee reports suspected wrongdoing such as corruption, mismanagement or corruption at work. It is referred to as making a disclosure in the interest of the public which can occur in a private enterprise or government agency (“Whistleblowing,” 2015). A whistleblower is an individual or employee who reports wrongdoing within an organization. This person draws attention to genuine abuses of power in government and businesses by decision makers. A whistleblower acts in accordance with perceived ethical or legal mandate (Halbert, Ingulli, & Frey, 2015). The key characteristic of a whistleblower is the willingness to sacrifice both professionally and personally to expose wrongdoing such as wastefulness, fraudulent practices and corruption in an organization. Persistence and the ability to assume personal risk are also characteristics of a whistleblower (Heumann, Friedes, Cassak, Wright & Joshi 2013). JPMorgan Chase & Co. was charged with...
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...Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Due DyKetia Gregg Thomas Payne Jr. Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance July 25, 2015 Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Due If something happens in the organization, for example, a worker is thought to be engaged in illegal activities, then a whistleblower reports on this to the legal institution. As a rule, a whistleblower is an employee, so to encourage him/her to disclose the information and to assure that one is making a right step the Whistleblower Protection Act was adopted (Ethics and corporate social responsibility, 2009). The things whistleblowers do are very serious. One should always remember that such actions may lead to the loss of money and reputation by the company or particular workers. Not everybody is ready to accept these; that is why the whistleblower might be threatened and compelled to leave the working place. The employees have different views on who the whistleblowers are. Some believe them to be disloyal workers, who are ready to betray the organization at any moment; others treat them as a helping hand in the eliciting of truth and putting things right in the company. Corporate governance and whistleblowing are working side by side. Sometimes a malpractice by an employee cannot be reported in an ordinary way. Typically this happens when a problem is related to the person who usually assists the whistleblower or to whom he or she reports to (Ethics and corporate...
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...Are the Dodd Frank Act Whistleblowing Measures Effective? Whistleblowing in the Financial Markets: Name: Professor: Course: Date: In the wake of the Global-Financial Crisis there have been various strategies employed to improve corporate governance, but the main question to ask will they work? The expansion of whistleblower bounties under s.992 of the Dodd-Frank Act 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) has been one such measure. This measure has been identified as significantly controversial, because it is superseding the traditional internal reporting processes (Schuman & Keating, 2011). The Dodd-Frank Amendment Act that was introduced in 2011 was an attempt to mitigate the potential harm that offering bounties to whistleblowers may have; albeit it seems to be side-lined through consultation processes. Thus, the following research will explore if the bounty provisions are a necessary and effective tool to increase supervision within financial institutions. The concept of “Whistleblower” needs to be identified before moving on in this discussion. The concept relates to a company insider reporting to an appropriate body when there are actions that are breaching the law or acting unethically (Kohn, 2011). Thus, whistleblowing and corporate governance are intrinsically linked. The indications are that the use of monetary incentives is not the most effective model to enforce whistleblowing as an effective deterrent, which can be supported by the poor statistical reception under the...
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...Running Head: Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Gary Noguera Strayer University LEG-500 Law, Ethics, & Corporate Governance January 25, 2015 Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley A whistleblower is someone that exposes misconduct or any illegal behavior within an organization or business. These individuals are known to be infamous for their actions. A whistleblower discloses information and behavior that most supervisors and managers do not get to witness personally. Being involved in whistleblowing can cause much chaos. It can have a direct effect on their job, such as a demotion of position. There are cases where whistleblowers have lost their lives due to the important and sacredness of the information that was discloses to expose others. There are two different types of whistleblowers. There is the internal whistleblower, which exposes those within an organization and then you have the external whistleblowers which exposes those outside an organization. Whistleblowers do the complete opposite of what most individuals in corporate America do, cover up one another. Whistleblowers always go around their boss, never tell their boss what they want to hear but only the truth, and they always give a report for what the boss does not want reported. This can cause major chaos in the whistleblower’s life. Not only could their family be affected by their behaviors...
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...the situation can sometimes also be the quickest path to becoming the company outcast. Witnessing misconduct or alleged illegal or dishonest activity within an organization and exposing it, e.g. advising your superior, is known as whistleblowing. Even though these employees are usually doing it out of the best interest of their company, they can often face ostracization and retaliation as a result of them exposing the truth. The question is, however, should companies promote whistleblowing? They absolutely should. Furthermore, what should companies do to allow whistleblowing? They should establish concrete programs that facilitate and encourage employees to whistleblow. Why GM Fails at Whistleblowing In a BusinessWeek article, GM Recalls: How General Motors Silenced a Whistle-Blower, a report blames General Motors with a culture of complacency for the more than decade-long delay before the company recalled millions of faulty vehicles. It described employees as passing the buck and committees falling back on the “GM nod” – the gesture given by members of a large, corporate meeting after the meeting ends where all in the room believe that the “other guy” plans to put whatever was discussed and agreed in place. An example of the effects of whistleblowing is described in the article written by Tim Higgins and Nick Summers. Steven...
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...Introduction: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was enacted in July 30, 2002 that set new law to enhance standard for all U.S public company, nonprofit, university and government entities. Famous scandals include the corruptions of WorldCom, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems, Tyco, and Enron had cost investors and company billions of dollars. Due to lack of organization structure and fraud prevention system companies would likely to be more exposed to employees to commit fraud. Policy like Whistblowing had changed organizations. The article “Whistleblowing and Good Government” is describe how one company should implementing and researching the best method of preventing fraud within company internally and externally. This article also defines the term Whistleblowing, and how to develop the policy and suggesting the best practice that company could use as resources. Article Summary: Over the pass decade there was numerous, both corporate and Government sector had committed some type of fraud that cause company billion dollars a year across the United States. One of the most famous case where higher managers at World Bank took over $2 millions of dollar involved in kickbacks, payoffs, bribery, embezzlement and collusive bidding. With the increasing of fraud many company and non-profit began to implement the SOX within their organization. One of the most important tools of SOX is Whistleblowing policy, the act of reporting wrongdoing to another within the organization internally...
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...An explanation of what relationship the Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley Acts have to financial markets and what are the similarities or differences between these Acts. The Dodd-Frank Act was proposed by Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) in the House of Representatives and former Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, in response to the financial and economic crisis witnessed from 2007-2010. Sarbanes-Oxley established heightened standards for the boards and management of both public companies and public accounting firms. The law was passed after the myriad scandals that rocked American securities markets, e.g., Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and others. Sarbanes-Oxley is wide in scope, establishing numerous responsibilities on the part of corporate boards, with compliance closely monitored by the government. While employees commonly discover fraud before other monitors, many are reluctant to report it. In an effort to encourage employees to report wrongdoing, Section 301 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) requires audit committees of public companies to establish a reporting channel that allows employees to confidentially and anonymously submit claims involving questionable accounting or auditing matters. Despite these internal whistle blowing programs, there is still concern over employee willingness to report wrongdoing. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform...
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...Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Tina-Marie Cole Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance LEG 500 - Lecture Course Prof. Lisa M. Morris January 20, 2015 Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Trinity Industries, or TRN (NYSE), manufactures roadway guardrails, which are a highway public safety feature. In 2005, TRN changed its rail head design saving the company two dollars per rail head but failed to notify the Federal Highway Administration which is required by a federal ruling. The newly designed rail heads that TRN has installed on U.S. roads nationally do not propel the guardrails away from crashing vehicles in head on collisions. The lower cost railheads can send the guard rail slicing through a car potentially injuring passengers unlike there predecessors design that pushed the rail away from the wreck and oncoming traffic. The new railheads known as the ET-Plus model failed five crash tests which were also undisclosed to authorities. Joshua Harman, a competitor to TRN discovered the changed design had gone unreported and sued TRN on behalf of the federal government (Davis & Polcyn, 2014). Joshua Harman stands to make one third of a potentially billion dollars in his law suit (Ivory & Kessler, 2014). As a whistleblower, Joshua Harman is saving potential lives and injuries, fighting back at corporate greed and earning a fortune in the process. A whistleblower exposes all forms of alleged misconduct on behalf of an organization which can...
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...recommendation that the bank end its relationship with the Israeli client as the client was not able to provide information necessary to satisfy the bank’s "Know Your Customer" requirements and she had communicated concerns of possible illegal activity. (1) As per Sharkey, the bank ignored red flags about a client's potential fraud and she believed the client might be involved in fraud or money- laundering. Sharkey adduced evidence that the client failed to comply with federally mandated due diligence protocols. The Judge had tossed the suit in 2013, stating an employee must show that he or she blew the whistle on conduct “reasonably believed’ to have violated a specific federal law mentioned in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. (2)...
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