According to the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower advocacy group, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is failing to shield employees in the way that was intended. The non-profit group says the federal law enacted in 2002 is not protecting corporate whistleblowers and is lobbying legislators for tougher rules. According to data from the Department of Labor, it has ruled in favor of whistleblowers in fewer than 2% of the complaints filed since 2002. Many whistleblower actions have been dismissed on the grounds that employees who worked for a corporate subsidiary are not necessarily covered by the whistleblower provision, according to Richard Moberly, a University of Nebraska law professor. Tom Devine, legal director of GAP, said this could have the effect of exempting some foreign companies from the US law. "For any whistleblowers who want to challenge misconduct of foreign companies, the law is not even a paper tiger unless the specific retaliation can be traced to a parent corporation," he said. (Truthout; Wall Street Journal.)Related posts: NASDAQ and Banking Lobby Endorse Ombuds for Accounting Oversight; Advice for Whistleblowers: Think Carefully and Talk to the Ombuds.
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