Becoming a Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblower

Making the decision to blow the whistle on fraud and corporate corruption can be one of the hardest a person has to make. Would-be whistleblowers often fear the fallout from coming forward and contacting the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with what they know.

While the financial rewards are potentially substantial, many fear retaliation and damage to their reputation—and rightly so. There’s no doubt that becoming a whistleblower can put a lot at risk.

Fortunately, there are laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in place, and they provide robust protections for whistleblowers who decide they want to expose corporate wrongdoing. If you want to become a Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower, Meissner Associates can help you submit your tip and protect you with every legal advantage available.

Why Be a Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblower?

When publicly traded corporations fail to make accurate public disclosures or maintain accurate accounting, they are committing fraud, pure and simple. Not only is this illegal, but it also puts all of their investors at risk of losing huge amounts of money.

Plus, SOX works hand-in-hand with the Dodd-Frank Act. By becoming a whistleblower, you might also become eligible for a whistleblower bounty. If your tip was both original and voluntary and also resulted in a successful SEC investigation that recovered over one million dollars in sanctions, you could personally receive between 10 and 30 percent of the money recovered by the SEC.

Choosing to become a Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower comes with the potential for huge benefits, but many still worry about the risks involved and whether they’ll be protected.

Whistleblowers Are Protected Under SOX

When the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was written in 2002, lawmakers understood that whistleblowers would need to be protected after coming forward. In most cases, SOX whistleblowers are able to remain anonymous, their identity only being known to the SEC—and that only toward the end of the investigation.

However, it’s true that sometimes a whistleblower’s identity is obvious through a simple process of elimination. It might be that you’re the only person who could possibly be the whistleblower.

While this is enough to give anyone pause, you don’t need to worry: As a whistleblower, you will enjoy substantial protections afforded by Sarbanes-Oxley. Put simply, you cannot be subjected to an adverse employment action, such as termination, harassment, demotion, or blacklisting.

If you are retaliated against, you can seek damages through a retaliation lawsuit. This could allow you to collect damages in the form of double back-pay, litigation costs, reinstatement to your position, and special damages to cover mental anguish and lost quality of life.

Work with an Attorney and Be a SOX Whistleblower

Meissner Associates can help you become a SOX whistleblower. We’ve been helping whistleblowers since 2001—before SOX was even enacted—and we know how to help you maximize your reward and take advantage of all the legal protections available.

To explore the possibility of becoming a Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower, contact our office today for a free, 100 percent confidential tip evaluation. Just complete the form below or give us a call at 1-866-764-3100.