Supreme Court Finds for Bank Whistleblower

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled against an investment bank on Feb. 8, reinstating a $900,000 jury award in favor of whistleblowers claiming retaliation. In a highly technical ruling in Murray v. UBS Securities LLC, the justices found that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a financial services reform law aimed at protecting investors, does not require whistleblowers to demonstrate that they were the victims of intentional retaliation. Put another way, the Supreme Court held that a whistleblower seeking the protections available under the law has to show that the protected activity contributed to the company’s actions against him but does not have to prove that the employer acted with retaliatory intent....