{"id":47282,"date":"2015-04-02T08:07:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T12:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/?p=47282"},"modified":"2015-04-02T08:10:55","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T12:10:55","slug":"sec-confidentiality-agreements-cannot-stifle-whistleblowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/04\/2015\/sec-confidentiality-agreements-cannot-stifle-whistleblowers.html","title":{"rendered":"SEC: Confidentiality Agreements Cannot Stifle Whistleblowers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/images.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-47285\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/images.jpg\" alt=\"images\" width=\"318\" height=\"159\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/images.jpg 318w, https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/images-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px\" \/><\/a>New York (HedgeCo.Net) &#8211; The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced its first enforcement action against a company for using restrictive language in confidentiality agreements with the potential to stifle the whistleblowing process.<\/p>\n<p>The SEC charged Houston-based global technology and engineering firm KBR Inc. with violating whistleblower protection Rule 21F-17 enacted under the Dodd-Frank Act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy requiring its employees and former employees to sign confidentiality agreements imposing pre-notification requirements before contacting the SEC, KBR potentially discouraged employees from reporting securities violations to us,\u201d said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SEC\u2019s Division of Enforcement. \u201cSEC rules prohibit employers from taking measures through confidentiality, employment, severance, or other type of agreements that may silence potential whistleblowers before they can reach out to the SEC. We will vigorously enforce this provision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since these investigations included allegations of possible securities law violations, the SEC found that these terms violated Rule 21F-17, which prohibits companies from taking any action to impede whistleblowers from reporting possible securities violations to the SEC.<\/p>\n<p>KBR agreed to pay a $130,000 penalty to settle the SEC\u2019s charges and the company voluntarily amended its confidentiality statement by adding language making clear that employees are free to report possible violations to the SEC and other federal agencies without KBR approval or fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n<p>Without admitting or denying the charges, KBR agreed to cease and desist from committing or causing any future violations of Rule 21F-17.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Akesson <br \/>Editor for <a title=\"hedge funds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\">HedgeCo.net<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:alex@hedgeco.net\">alex@hedgeco.net<\/a><br \/>\n<a title=\"hedge fund\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\">HedgeCo.Net<\/a> is a premier <a title=\"hedge fund database\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\">hedge fund database<\/a> and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership in <a title=\"hedge fund\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\">HedgeCo.net<\/a> is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for <a title=\"hedge fund\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\">Hedge Funds<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York (HedgeCo.Net) &#8211; The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced its first enforcement action against a company for using restrictive language in confidentiality agreements with the potential to stifle the whistleblowing process. The SEC charged Houston-based global technology and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedge-fund-regulation","category-hedgeco-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47282"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47289,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47282\/revisions\/47289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}