Tag Archives: Public Companies

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)  provides “whistleblower” protection to employees of publicly traded companies who report corporate securities violations or fraud against investors. Usually this involves SOX’s protection of employees against retaliation for reporting their own employers’ alleged violation of securities law. In a recent case, two employees of a private contractor attempted to bring SOX retaliation claims against their former employers, which provided investment advising services to mutual funds registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. After allowing the employees to bring the claims, the district court asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to answer the question of whether SOX’s whistleblower protection applies to an employee of a contractor of a public company. The First Circuit found that employees of the private contractor were not “employees” under SOX and could not bring their retaliation claims.Continue reading this entry