Case: Individual Employment Rights/Whistleblowing (2d Cir.)

The Second Circuit vacated a jury’s verdict in favor of an employee and remanded to federal district court for a new trial his claims under the whistleblower protection provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that UBS Securities and UBSG fired him in retaliation for reporting alleged fraud on shareholders. The court of appeals found that the district court didn’t instruct the jury that a SOX anti-retaliation claim requires a showing of the employer’s retaliatory intent. 18 U.S.C. § 1514A prohibits publicly traded companies from taking adverse employment actions to “discriminate against an employee . . . because of” any lawful whistleblowing ...