The Supreme Court agreed on May 1 to look at a federal investor protection law after a Wall Street whistleblower claimed his former employer fired him for refusing to paint an unjustifiably rosy picture of market outlooks.
The law concerned is the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 which was approved by Congress after accounting fraud led to the high-profile collapse of WorldCom Inc., Tyco International, and Enron Corp.
The statute added new criminal penalties for running afoul of securities laws and ushered in strict new rules for accountants, auditors, and corporate officers, along with more stringent recordkeeping requirements, according to Investopedia.
Sarbanes-Oxley also provides that employers are not allowed to discriminate against an employee because the individual reported financial improprieties….