All three groups strongly advocated that the CFTC institute unprecedented restrictions on the right of employees to contact government agencies and report wrongdoing. For example, the Roundtable demanded that the CFTC “require” whistleblowers to use “employer sponsored” “reporting procedures” and also asked the Commission to implement rules that would permit companies to “sanction” whistleblowers whose reports to law enforcement agencies caused “harm to the company.”
“These restrictions are unprecedented under whistleblower law, and would cripple the key anti-corruption protections afforded under the Dodd Frank Act,” said Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center.
The NWC report cited to statistics published by the Association of Certified Fraud Auditors, the Ethics Resource Center and the Department of Justice that demonstrated the importance of fully protecting whistleblowers.
“In today’s work place the main problem is that employees are afraid to report wrongdoing. Rules are needed not to scare employees from blowing the whistle or restrict their right to contact federal law enforcement, rules are needed to stop the ‘culture of silence’ that almost ruined the American economy, cost millions of jobs and crippled the housing markets,” added Kohn.
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