A Manhattan District Court dismissed a whistleblower’s case alleging that his former employer had fired him in retaliation for reporting TradingScreen Inc.’s securities fraud violations.

In one of the first cases filed under Dodd-Frank Act’s retaliation provisions, the court clarified that in order to benefit from that law’s protections, the whistleblower had to have reported the violations to the SEC, or have reported to another who then reported those violations to the SEC.

Because Mr. Egan did not go to the SEC himself and was unable to allege that the company’s president, who he reported to, or Latham & Watkins, who the president consulted, reported the violation to the SEC, the court found that he was unprotected by the Dodd-Frank retaliation provisions.  Mr. Egan’s securities fraud case against TradingScreen was dismissed in May.

“Judge Knocks Out Dodd-Frank Retaliation Case Against TradingScreen”