Corporations Continue Assault on Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Reforms

On Friday February 4th, the National Whistleblower Center filed a 120-page rulemaking comment
with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), rebutting the
main concerns raised by corporate lobby groups. The corporate campaign
to undercut whistleblower reforms in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform
law continued to escalate as leading corporate lobby groups, including
the Financial Services Roundtable, the Association of Corporate Counsel
and the Chamber of Commerce, formally petitioned the CFTC to implement
rules that would severely restrict the scope of whistleblower
protections mandated by the new corporate
whistleblower laws.

All three groups strongly advocated that the
CFTC institute unprecedented restrictions on the right of employees to
contact government agencies and report
wrongdoing. For example, the Roundtable demanded that the CFTC
"require" whistleblowers to use "employer sponsored" "reporting
procedures" and also asked the Commission to implement rules that would
permit companies to "sanction" whistleblowers whose reports to law
enforcement agencies caused "harm to the company."

"These
restrictions are unprecedented under whistleblower law, and would
cripple the key anti-corruption protections afforded under the Dodd
Frank Act," said Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director of the National
Whistleblower Center.

The NWC report cited to statistics
published by the Association of Certified Fraud Auditors, the Ethics
Resource Center and the Department of Justice that demonstrated the
importance of fully protecting
whistleblowers.

"In today's work place the main problem is that
employees are afraid to report wrongdoing. Rules are needed not to
scare employees from blowing the whistle or restrict their
right to contact federal law enforcement, rules are needed to stop the
'culture of silence' that almost ruined the American economy, cost
millions of jobs and crippled the housing markets," added Kohn.

Links:

NWC Report to the CFTC on proposed whistleblower rules

Action Alert to the SEC and CFTC