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Kramer v. Trans-Lux Corp., No. 3:11cv1424 (SRU) (D. Conn. Sept. 25, 2012)

A Federal Court in a recent case gave an expansive interpretation of the whistleblower protections under the Dodd-Frank Act.  Some fear that this ruling will allow more employees to qualify as whistleblowers and, therefore, be afforded the protections of Dodd-Frank from retaliation by their employer.  A “whistleblower” is any individual who provides information relating to a violation of the securities laws to the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”).  ...

On September 11, 2012, Swiss banker Bradley Birkenfeld announced that the IRS will pay him $104 million as a whistleblower reward for the information he provided to the U.S. government.  Under the IRS whistleblower program, informants are entitled to a percentage of the dollar amount recovered by the U.S. government when fraud is exposed.  The information supplied by Birkenfeld uncovered a secretive private wealth management division of the Swiss Bank UBS.  This division of UBS would help U.S. clients evade ...

Hasan v. GPM Investments, LLC, No. 3:07 cv 1779 (SRU) (D. Conn. Aug. 27, 2012).

The Court’s decision in this case benefits employees by helping them recover more money for their unpaid overtime wages. The dispute dealt with how to calculate damages when an employer misclassified workers as exempt from overtime compensation. The employer argued the damages should be calculated using the fluctuating work week method. If an employee worked 52 hours per week and was paid a ...