Whistleblower Protection Blog : Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

Five years after Hurricane Katrina a new feature-length documentary “The Big Uneasy” is taking a look at the true cause of the disaster. Humorist and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer speaks to an Army Corp of Engineers whistleblower who reveals that “some of the same flawed methods responsible for the levee failure during Katrina are being used to rebuild the system expected to protect the new New Orleans from future peril.” Mr. Shearer has stated that his documentary showcases the negative consequences for those who had the courage to tell the truth. If you would like to take action to support federal employees at the Army Corp of Engineers and other federal agencies charged with protecting us please click here. 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The documentary will be shown in theaters across the country for one-night only, Monday, August 30^th. Please click here for a list of locations.

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One of the problems of our current patchwork approach to whistleblower protection is that much of the public is unaware of the protections that do exist in the law today. A case in point would be yesterday's story in the Washington Examiner. In a story called, "Metro strengthening protections for 'whistleblowers,'" writer Markham Heid reports on an action by the Board of Directors of our local transit system. "The measures include the implementation of federal laws that provide protection for whistleblowers . . .," the article says. I would say that there is nothing the Metro board needs to do to "implement" the federal protection for whistleblowers.  It already exists. I wrote here, here and here before about the Federal Rail Safety Act (FRSA), 49 U.S.C. § 20109, and the National Transit System Security Act (NTSSA). Both are part of Public Law 110-53, the 9/11 Commission Act passed in 2007. See § 1413 (NTSSA) and § 1521 (FRSA). The key points for current Metro employees is that federal law now protects them when they raise safety concerns to anyone -- their supervisors, federal overseers, their members of Congress, or the media. If they experience retaliation, they have 180 days to file a written complaint with OSHA. They will have access to the same procedures that have protected environmental and nuclear whistleblowers for 40 years. Metro employees are welcome to come here to the National Whistleblowers Center if they want legal advice about raising safety issues, or raising claims of retaliation. Heid's article reports that the Metro board is establishing its own Whistleblower Hearing Panel. Myself, I would rather see whistleblowers pursue the Department of Labor process, starting with the OSHA complaint, where they can own a cause of action and receive a due process hearing that is not controlled by Metro management. Is a management panel really going to award compensatory damages and attorney fees against itself? Management may be lauded for its recognition that whistleblowers are their friends in the cause of safety. Metro and the media can both do a better job of informing employees of the actual remedies that already exist.

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60 minutes will re-air their piece on UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld tonight. Please tune in to watch at 7:00 pm EST then Take Action by sending a letter in support of Mr. Birkenfeld's clemency petition.

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President Obama recently nominated Robert E. O’Neill to serve as U.S. attorney for Florida’s Middle District, one of the country’s busiest regions. The nomination will be reviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming months and will need to be approved by a vote of the full Senate. However, there are questions regarding his nomination based on O’Neill’s alleged involvement with whistleblower retaliation.

Between 1999 and 2003, O’Neill was former federal prosecutor Jeffrey J. Del Fuoco’s supervisor. Del Fuoco was in charge of investigating a corrupt Manatee County, Florida sheriff, Charles B. “Charlie” Wells, and an elite group of his deputies known as the Delta Squad. Then Assistant U.S. Attorney O’Neill gave Del Fuoco a glowing review, stating he “was able to demonstrate the legitimacy of the investigation and the fact that the corruption was rampant.”

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CNBC released a story yesterday about the qui tam provisions of the new Dodd-Frank Act, the financial reform law. They call the whistleblower provisions "little-noticed," indicating that we here at the National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) still need to do a better job of informing the media about new developments in whistleblower protection. 

In the article, NWC Executive Director Stephen M. Kohn tells CNBC, "If the law works, whistleblowers should be rewarded with millions of dollars. Those whistleblowers will save investors billions and billions of dollars." CNBC notes that the new provision could have helped whistleblowers like Harry Markopolos who tried in vein to get the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to act against Bernard Madoff. If Dodd-Frank was in place then, Markopolos could have filed a qui tam claim, stopped Madoff's ponzi scam, and collected a portion of Madoff's ill-gotten gains. CNBC commented that NWC's seminar last Friday shows that lawyers are "chomping at the bit" for a share of the recoveries.

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The curriculum for our upcoming seminar titled “Integrating the False Claims Act into Your Law Practice” has been updated to include a presentation on the on the numerous whistleblower provisions contained in the new Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

It is approved for CLE credit in Pennsylvania and Ohio for attorneys who choose to attend the seminar in our offices in Washington, D.C. Attorneys also have the option to attend via teleconference, but not for CLE credit.

Date: Friday, July 23, 2010
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. EST

To register for this seminar, click here. For more information, click here or call 202-342-1903. 

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Public interest groups have scheduled a town hall meeting to discuss legislation designed to protect miners and other workers from injury and disease. It is scheduled for next Tuesday, July 27, 2010, at Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, 4444 Arlington Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. A flyer is available here. Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, is scheduled to speak. The purpose of the town hall meeting is to build support for H.R. 5663, the Robert C. Byrd Miner Safety and Health Act. This legislation would expand and improve workplace safety laws by strengthening both the Mine Safety and Health Act (MSHA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). We posted a previous notice about this bill here.

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Today the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, held that one provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is unconstitutional.  However, it also held that this one provision is "severable" so that the other provisions of SOX, including the whistleblower protection, are still in force.  The case is Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, No. 08-861 (June 28, 2010). The unconstitutional provision of SOX limited the president's power to remove members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

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Khaled Said posted video to the internet that showed police officers in Egypt sharing profits from a drug deal. On Monday, Neal Ungerleider of True/Slant has posted a translation of Arabic-language article from Al-Shorouk. The article describes how two informants came to an internet cafe in Alexandria, Egypt, and called for all patrons to show identification under emergency law. Mr. Said refused, and the first perpetrator (Mahmoud al-Falah) promptly tied his hands.  Mr. Said resisted, and the informants beat him and dragged him to another building. Witnesses with cameras followed Mr. Said as he was beaten, taken to a police station, and within 15 minutes dumped into the street. His body had a broken jaw, mangled ribs and a cracked skull. Demonstrators in Alexandria and Cairo protested Mr. Said's torture and killing. His Facebook memorial page has drawn over 100,000 members. The Egyptian government has failed to call for prosecution of the perpetrators.  Egyptian blogger travellerwithin has reported on one demonstration as follows:

According to the respected Al-Nadeem Centre for the Rehabilitation of victims of violence and torture, a Thursday 70-person strong demonstration by the Sidi Gaber police station in Alexandria – where Khaled died – ended in the police beating up the demonstrators and arrested 11 persons, including two journalists and Khaled’s female cousin.

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National Public Radio (NPR) is reporting that a federal administrative judge has ordered that the Massey Coal Company temporarily reinstate whistleblower Ricky Lee Campbell while his retaliation case is pending.  Campbell drove coal shuttle cars and bolted mine roofs at the Upper Big Branch and Massey's Slip Ridge Cedar Grove mine.  He complained about problems with the brakes and power pedals.  He was fired before the April 5 explosion killed 29 of his coworkers.

The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act, 30 U.S.C. § 815(c), contains one of the best preliminary reinstatement provisions for whistleblowers.  Unless the administrative judge finds that the complaint is frivolous, then the law requires that the whistleblower get a preliminary reinstatement order to keep working while the case proceeds. That is the order Campbell has just received.

The Mine Safety and Health Act has a short statute of limitations, though -- just sixty (60) days.  This type of unevenness (laws strong on some points and weak on others) shows why we need a comprehensive whistleblower law that will give all whistleblowers the benefits of modern whistleblower laws.  Massey, meanwhile, is promising to appeal the order reinstating Campbell.

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