Whistle-Blower Must Arbitrate Dispute With UBS Over Firing, Court Concludes

A former UBS Securities LLC official who alleged he was fired in retaliation for complaining about being pressured to skew his “off message” research reports must arbitrate his differences with the investment bank, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York concluded Jan. 27 (Murray v. UBS Secs. LLC).

Judge Katherine Polk Failla found that the plaintiff’s claims arose under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act—not the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which bars pre-dispute arbitration agreements. This was true even though the disclosures were allegedly protected under SOX, she said.

The court recounted that ...