Posted in SOX WhistleBlowing in the news
at 25/02/2008
Sox Whistleblowers Need “Qui Tam” Rewards as Added Incentive
SOX Whistleblowers Protection gives its total support to the post in Work/ Life/Law 3.0 by whistle blowing scholar Terry Morehead Dworkin.
Dworkin point is that Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblowers should be given the same incentives as given in the False Claims Act. He points to the recent 671 million dollar award against Merck.
Dworkin writes:
“The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) relies on whistleblowers to help enforce it. It tries to promote whistleblowing through requiring companies to set up anonymous whistleblowing procedures, protecting whistleblowers from retaliation, and providing criminal penalties for intentional retaliation. It does not give rewards though. While most employees who work in companies covered by SOX thought they were protected when they blew the whistle, this has proved to be an illusion. SOX whistleblowers are most commonly fired, and they have been unable for a variety of reasons to get redress. Not surprisingly, whistleblowing has gone down under SOX. Because of these problems, many are calling for changes in the law, including a reward system similar to that in the FCA.”
Dworkin asks suppose that you are working for a company and that you discover that it is misleading shareholders and the public about its financial stability. Would you blow the whistle? Would you be more likely to if you got a reward? If your answer to the latter is yes, how much do you think would be just compensation for the risks invovled? Who should have to pay for the reward?
The answer is the the upper management that reap the huge financial gains from their fraud. Like the defrauded government agencies that benefit from the False Claims Act whistleblowers, investors will benefit more if SOX whistleblowers have more incentive and should be willing to compensate them from the monies disgorged from the wrong doers.
SOX WHISTLEBLOWERS deserve our encouragement, help AND MORE SARBANES-OXLEY PROTECTIONS!!!
SOX whistleblowers
whistleblowers help
whistleblowers protection
wrongful termination
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This article has very serious points in need of sincere actions from government regulators. Ive been involved with big companies in their SOX compliance strategies but I tell you,Im certain that it barely met what SOX was intended for. The only beneficiaries that reaped the benefit are the sox consultants and the corporate top brass themselves who let their companies spent millions to protect them from fallout
Interesting though, if only corporate accountants and internal auditors would be adequately protected and rewarded, Im sure they will feel secured to speak up and line up as whistleblowers. They are the ones who know more than 90% of corporate maneuvers and fraud ala Enron.
Comment by Armando De Forres — March 25, 2008 @ 10:23 am