The first whistleblower to prevail under The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has now been awarded $175,000—including more than $100,000 in attorney fees—and has been ordered reinstated to his position as CFO of a small bank holding company. The whistleblower is entitled to get his job back even though it means that his successor will be put out of work. In addition, he will have to work closely with the very people who were the target of his complaint, an administrative law judge said.
Although the ALJ first signaled that reinstatement was the proper remedy back in January 2004, the decision issued Feb. 15 of this year is the first to address the company’s objections to letting the ex-CFO, David Welch, back in the Cardinal Bankshares Corp. boardroom and to put a monetary figure on his damages.
