The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is a nonprofit entity that was created with the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and established by Congress to oversee the audits of public companies with the goal of protecting investors and the public's interest by promoting accurate and independent audit reports (About the PCAOB). In addition to its oversight of public company audits, the PCAOB also oversees the audits of brokers and dealers (About the PCAOB). Much like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the PCAOB's mission is to protect investors.
Read MoreIn Dietz v. Cypress Semiconductor Corp., No. 16-1209 & 16-1249, 2017 BL 370853 (10th Cir. Oct. 17, 2017), the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacated the district court’s judgment in favor of Timothy Dietz (“Plaintiff”) under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“Sarbanes-Oxley”). The court found Plaintiff did not reasonably believe his former employer, Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (“Defendant”), committed mail fraud or wire fraud, therefore his whistleblower complaint was not protected activity under Sarbanes-Oxley. Accordingly, the court granted Defendant’s petitions for review, vacated the Administrative Review Board’s (the “Board”) awards for Plaintiff, and vacated as moot the district court’s order enforcing those awards.
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