- May 30, 2014
One of the first pieces of advice we give to any prospective client is that while being a whistleblower can be rewarding in many ways, it’s not always easy or glamorous. To the contrary, being a whistleblower can present significant personal and professional challenges, as an article published in this week’s Financial Times Weekend Magazine highlights. The article profiles three Wall Street whistleblowers, including our client Dr. Eric Ben-Artzi, who came forward in 2011 to expose possible misconduct by Deutsche Bank (Dr. Ben Artzi’s whistleblower complaint against Deutsche Bank, which alleged that the bank had improperly overvalued its credit derivative portfolio by over ten billion dollars, was the subject of an earlier Financial Times article and, according to news reports, is under SEC investigation).
As this article reflects, whistleblowers can face a very real risk of retaliation in the workplace. The good news, though, is that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and related laws do offer robust and effective protections for individuals who report misconduct to the SEC. In our view, the most important of these is the ability to report anonymously – as we noted in the article, the best protection against retaliation is if the whistleblower’s company has no idea that he or she blew the whistle. Therefore, reporting anonymously, as the SEC Whistleblower Program allows people to do, if they are represented by an attorney, goes a long way in stopping retaliation before it can start. While we certainly respect the courageous decision of Dr. Ben-Artzi and the other whistleblowers profiled in the article to publicly identify themselves, many SEC whistleblowers find that they are better able to protect their careers by remaining anonymous.
Ultimately, this article shows that the choice to become a whistleblower (and whether or not to do so anonymously or openly) is a deeply personal one. We’re gratified that Dr. Ben-Artzi was quoted as saying that, although his path as a whistleblower has sometimes been difficult, he has no regrets and that “I don’t think I could have or should have done anything else.” Our hope is that all whistleblowers who come forward can do so without regrets – a goal that can only be achieved if whistleblowers enter the process with their eyes open, fully understanding the risks, rewards and options available to them.
By Jordan Thomas and Vanessa De Simone
