Sarbanes-Oxley: Whistleblower Protection (Update Available)


Overview/Description
Target Audience
Expected Duration
Lesson Objectives
Course Number



Overview/Description
Following the Enron collapse, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was signed into law in an effort to prevent or reduce the incidence of corporate and securities fraud. Significantly, the Act (technically named "The Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act of 2002") provides protection to, and even encourages, employees who would report such fraud. Sarbanes-Oxley provides the most forceful protections to date for corporate whistleblowers. It prohibits retaliation against whistleblowers, reinforces the act of whistleblowing, and requires public companies to adopt a code of business ethics and protocols for receiving and reviewing reports of ethical wrongdoing. More importantly, the Act enforces compliance by making both corporations and individuals accountable for their actions via administrative, civil, and criminal enforcement mechanisms. In this course, you'll learn about the key whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the creation of policies and practices that comply with the provisions, and ways to process whistleblower complaints. The course does not teach learners how to resolve those complaints.

Target Audience
The courses in this series cover a variety of subject areas that affect all employees with an emphasis on management and human resource personnel who need to understand and implement compliance policies.

Expected Duration (hours)
1.5

Lesson Objectives

The Whistleblower Provisions: An Overview

  • recognize the importance of understanding key whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
  • select examples of the types of companies and employees who are held accountable to the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
  • match Sections 806 and 1107 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act with descriptions of the whistleblower protections they afford.
  • identify examples of steps a company can take to comply with its obligations under sections 406, 301, and 307 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
  • identify examples of potential criminal penalties under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
  • choose examples of legal remedies available to whistleblowers under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
  • Complying with Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblower Provisions

  • recognize the benefits of complying with the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
  • select examples of policies or practices that comply with, or complement, the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
  • select examples of the steps used to process complaints under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
  • Course Number:
    HR0172