HELP What is a legal option for whistleblowers within the private sector of publicly traded companies?

In 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed in response to the Enron and WorldCom scandals, offering broad protections for whistleblowers at public companies in order to encourage fraud reporting. Private companies were considered immune to the law.

But in 2014 the Supreme Court heard a challenge to SOX, and ruled that even though the plaintiffs were not employees of the publicly traded company, the SOX whistleblower statute applied to them. The reason? They suffered retaliation for reporting alleged fraud involving financial reporting of a publicly-traded company.

Here’s what the law now says:

SOX covers employees of a public company’s private contractors and subcontractors.

SOX covers privately-owned companies if they provide services for publicly-traded ones.

Explanation:

quid pro quo sexual harassment typically involves an employee being pressured by a superior to provide sexual favors in order to avoid being fired or demoted, or in order to get a promotion, raise or perk.