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Article: Ninth Circuit Issues Its First Ruling Setting Forth The Elements For Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblower Claims.
- Article from:
- Mondaq Business Briefing
- Article date:
- September 10, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Mondaq Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002,1 ("Sarbanes-Oxley" or "SOX") protects employees of publicly traded companies from retaliation for providing information related to possible acts of fraud against shareholders. In Van Asdale v. International Game Technology, No. 07-16597 (9th Cir. 2009), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, addressing for the first time the substantive elements of a SOX whistleblower claim, ruled that employees do not have to prove that actual shareholder fraud has occurred to maintain such a suit. Rather, plaintiffs need only establish that they had an actual and objectively reasonable belief that shareholder fraud occurred. In addition, the ...