By: Jeffrey M. Haber Last year, this Blog wrote a number of articles about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC” or the “Commission”) efforts to stop companies from impeding whistleblowers from reporting violations of the securities laws to the Commission. (See here, here, and here.) It looks like 2017 is picking up where 2016 left off. Last week, the SEC announced the settlement of two enforcement actions (here and here) against companies that impeded protected whi

By: Jeffrey M. Haber The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) has put a lump of coal in the Christmas stockings of two companies this week for using separation agreements that impede the ability of whistleblowers to report violations of the securities laws to the Commission. The announcements by the SEC (here and here) came within a day of each other and evidence a continued resolve by the Commission to crack down on companies that use severance agreemen