The Grimm Act and Why it Might Hurt Whistleblowers
At the present time politicians wonder “Why are we so hated?” They sit in total befuddlement about why they are “So poorly regarded.” Basically, politicians are about as loved and trusted as snakes, alligators, used car salesman and ambulance-chasing-low-rent lawyers. But then you get stuff like New York congressman Michael Grimm’s new bill that gives Wall Street and big corporations the right to rip off Americans and not have to worry about Whistleblowers any longer! Of course, the rest of the politicians are lining up to pass the bill because big business and Wall Street needs a little legal protection from being called out for ripping off America.
The Grimm Act, which is listed as House Bill 2483, is being called the “Whistleblower Improvement Act” and was written and created to take down the corporate whistleblower protections we finally have in the United States. It is basically a bill to stop Whistleblowing! America needs to read this bill and write their congressperson to stop being a corporate lackey and vote against the bill.
The bill creates a loophole in the two most important whistleblower laws to come out over the last 50 years. The first is the Dodd-Frank Act, which reformed Wall Street, and the second is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which reformed corporate America and their creative accounting departments and led to things like Enron and World Com!
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a busy agency. They cannot investigate every company in America. However, when they receive a tip or a report from an insider, they are able to quickly identify the wrongdoers and bring them to justice. The Grimm Act will undermine the SEC’s ability to take action on those tips.
Under the new law, the SEC would be required to put the wrongdoers on NOTICE and warn them that their company is a suspect. Do you think that may “tip them off,” so they cover their tracks? I DO! This is the same thing as telling the police to warn a drug dealer they are about to come over and arrest him and ask him to “not destroy the drugs and evidence”! Law enforcement cannot be effective in this environment, and the American people deserve better legislation than this corporate protectionist bill.
