...Assignment 1 – Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Tialia Booth LEG 500 – Law, Ethics, & Corporate Governance Strayer University Professor Lateefah A. Muhammad July 20, 2015 Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Peter Buxtun. Linda Almonte. John Kopchinski. Edward Snowden. Everett Stern. J. Kirk McGill. The commonality in each of the individuals listed is that they have been identified as a whistleblower. This paper will review the key characteristics of a whistleblower, examine an example of whistleblowing from recent history, provide an opinion on whether or not such whistleblowing was justified by the individual, and finally review the current Sarbanes-Oxley Act to determine to what extent the individual was protected. A whistleblower can be most basically defined as an individual or persons who report and make known unethical and illegal actions taken by their employer. The employer could be a publicly traded or privately held company or a not-for-profit organization. The whistleblower may choose to release their findings and information uncovered within their own company or to outsiders such as the news media, law enforcement officials, or federal regulators. In every case of a whistleblower coming forward there is a shared desire to stop the unethical and possibly illegal behavior or acts being committed and to ensure those who have been affected are identified and hopefully compensated or righted in some way (Halbert, Ingulli, & Frey, 2015). In 2003...
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...activities under the control of their employers (Halbert). They disclose information within or outside their organizations, for instances, management or the public. Robert Blatchford decided to come forward with allegations of J. C. Penney was charging full price for items that were on sale and collecting sales tax on items that were nontaxable. He was terminated and had a lawsuit filed against for coming forward with the information. What is Whistleblowing? Whistleblowing is the attempt of people who work for a company reveal unethical or illegal activities. Whistleblowing tries to make others aware of activities that are considered illegal and unethical. When the wrongdoing is reported to someone within the company, it is considered to internal. However, internal whistleblowing is tends to less effective to the company. On the other hand, there is external whistleblowing. This is where the wrongdoing is made public by going to the media. Therefore, going public tends to be more effective and cause the company bad publicity. Whistleblowing can be personal or impersonal. Personal is when the wrongful act affects the whistleblower alone. Impersonal is when wrongful act affects others. Many people whistle blow for two reasons: morality and revenge. Morality is the biggest and best reason for this act because people generally should want to be moral and ethical. Whistleblowers should keep in mind that once they blow the whistle there are consequences, such as termination, blacklisted...
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...Assignment 1: Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Act Michelle M. Webb Dr. Boneita Campbell LEG500 Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance April 20, 2015 . Week 3 Assignment 1: Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Act Who are Whistleblowers and what do they do? Could you be a Whistleblower? There are several definitions for the term whistleblower. The most accurate and significant definitions to the subject of this paper are the definition given by the Black’s Law Dictionary and the one by the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA). The Black’s Law Dictionary defines a whistleblower as a worker who declines to participate in and informs on the unlawful and/or unjust actions of his co-workers or his employer ("The Law Dictionary", n.d.). The WPA defines whistleblowing as the disclosure of facts an employee deems proof of unlawful acts of, blatant misconduct, exploitation of authority, and could jeopardize public safety (Molzen, 2002). Over the years many U.S. workers have observed unlawful transgressions within the workplace and have come forward to report these actions. The actions of these noble citizens (whistleblowers) have been instrumental in saving enormous amounts of money and countless lives over the years. However, these whistleblowers fail to receive the recognition and admirations they deserve for doing the right thing. More often than not they are badgered, bullied, demoted, and terminated from their jobs for their efforts. Therefore, the act of whistleblowing is a decision...
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...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 Due LEG500 Professor Doris Mitchell Sileen Wright July 20, 2014 What is a whistle-blower? A whistle-blowing can be an employee or an ex-employee of a corporation who have evidence of dishonesty and/or corrupt behavior in the organization or behavior in the organization that is not in the best interest of the public. (Fernando, 365). The characteristics of a whistleblower is a person who is devoted to the concerns of others, they are useful to others, they are not concern in changing their behavior, they allow their on belief and attitudes to guide them and they are very educated people who hold professional positions. While whistle-blowing can be rewarding it can also be harmful for the person who is the whistle-blower and the organization, so one must be very careful in becoming a whistle-blower. For instance, the effects of being a whistle-blower can be strenuous both physical as well as mentally, it can cause the organization as well as the person to lose money and their reputations can be destroy as well, they are chances that someone could be incarcerated, the whistleblower can also be force to leave their job or the can be demoted, the credibility of the whistle-blower as well as the organization can be ruined, and the family of the whistle blower can be put jeopardy. So, when do you think an employee should be a whistle-blower and report misconduct by someone in their company? To some being a whistle-blower is being disloyal...
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...Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley This document will describe the key characteristics of a whistleblower and briefly summarize on researched instance of Whistleblowing in one publically traded company within the last 12 months. It will include the details of the issue that the whistleblower reported and the effect of the whistleblower’s actions on both herself and the company. Next, it will evaluate whether or not the whistleblower was justified in reporting the company’s actions. Lastly, it will examine the extent to which the whistleblower would be protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Characteristics For many years, individuals have raised concerns about misconduct, unethical or illegal practices observed at their place of employment to reporters/media, employers’ ethics hotline, management, via labor law posters, or the Office of the Whistleblower. This included employees from private companies, non-profit organizations, and governmental agencies. Employees can report unethical actions regarding public safety, health, business practices, fraud, waste, and abuse. Keep in mind that is does not have to be an employee; it can also be a supplier, contractor, client or any individual who somehow becomes aware of the illegal activities. Despite the fact that unethical behavior occurs within the workplace, there are still several employees that are loyal to the law, the community and society as a whole. These people are known as whistleblowers. Publicly Traded Company One...
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...misbehavior and incidents to their immediate supervisor, union representative, or human resources department) or external means (i.e., going outside their organization to, for example, a third party ombudsman, an external hotline, or an applicable government regulatory agency related to the type of wrongdoing behavior. Internal whistleblowing mechanisms for public companies must comply with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). Two of the many corporate governance provisions of SOX place whistleblower-friendly requirements on issuers. SOX section 301 requires the audit committee of every issuer to establish procedures for the receipt, retention, and treatment of complaints regarding accounting, internal control, or auditing matters, and to maintain the anonymity of employee complaints regarding accounting and auditing matters (i.e., the establishment of a whistleblower hotline). SOX section 806 provides protection for employees who blow the whistle against their employer, an anti-retaliation provision subsequently reinforced by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Programs to encourage external whistleblowing typically provide an incentive to the would be whistleblower, either in the form of monetary awards, protection from retaliation, or both. Researchers have identified various issues that are most...
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...Whistleblowing LEG 500 Whistleblowing in a Publicly Traded Company Whistleblowing implies the imperative necessity to alert others (company) about immorality issues, including illegal activity, happening inside the organization. For the employee who decides to blow the whistle “usually brings to he/she undesirable consequences.” Some consequences are like threats, loss of employment, and social rejection. (Chiu,R. 2003) Whistleblower Traits Whistleblowers are characterized by strong ethic-moral values. They are perceived as an active person with enough courage to expose the wrongdoing occurring inside their company. They are “perceived as altruistically driven individuals who are steered by their attitudes.” The whistleblower is characterized by being an altruistically motivated person, perfectionist, professionally well educated, self-driven attitudes, conscious invariant behavior, and functional utilitarian. They are competent and professionals. Usually, the whistleblower act in good faith and they think they act for the best of the company. They have access to relevant information from the business that allows them to be aware of unlawful situations. Having this position in the business makes the easy to share information with the superiors or in another scenario to the authorities. A publicly traded company affected by whistleblowing is Rabanxy Inc. (NSE: Ranbaxy) Ranbaxy is an Indian Multinational pharmaceutical company that was producing generics drug...
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...Week 3 Assignment 1: Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Shirmere N. Gardner Dr. Susan Gerber LEG 500: Law, Ethics & Corporate Governance January 25, 2015 Abstract This text will examine the key characteristics of a whistleblower, as well as the details surrounding the JPMorgan whistleblowing event. The extent to which whistleblowers are protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) will also be elaborated. Key Characteristics of a Whistleblower Whistleblowers are individuals who choose to report unethical and illegal activities. Some may work for various organizations such as non-profits and government agencies. Whistleblowing empowers employees to adhere to ethical principles and speak up for things taking place that are unethical, which may affect consumers, citizens or other employees. Such information may be disclosed to company officials, government authorities, and the media. Some of the key characteristics of a whistleblower are that they are altruistically motivated, utilitarian, uninterested in altering their behavior and they allow their own attitudes and beliefs to guide them. Most whistleblowers are often well-educated and hold professional positions (Wines, 2005). JP Morgan Whistleblower According to a Reuters article a JPMorgan whistleblower was compensated $63.9 million in a mortgage fraud deal. “Keith Edwards, a Louisiana resident, had worked for JP Morgan or its predecessors from 2003 to 2008, and had been an...
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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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...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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...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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...Assignment 1: Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley LEG500030VA016-11 (Law, Ethics & Corporate Governance Professor Timothy Griffin Strayer University Jan Jones July 19, 2015 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. A whistleblower is a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, dishonest, or not correct within an organization that is either private or public. The information of alleged wrongdoing can be classified in many ways: violation of company policy/rules, law, regulation, or threat to public interest/national security, as well as fraud, and corruption. Those that become whistleblowers can choose to bring information or allegations to surface either internally or externally. Internally, a whistleblower can bring his/her accusations to the attention of other people within the accused organization. Externally, a whistleblower can bring allegations to light by contacting a third party outside of an accused organization. He or she can reach out to the media, government, law enforcement, or those who are concerned. Whistleblowers also face stiff reprisal/retaliation from those who are accused or alleged of wrongdoing. One whistleblower-related...
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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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