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Regulatory Sanctions

BlackRock Settles Whistleblower Protection Violations - SEC

January 17, 2017

[Photo: Larry Fink (center) w/ Pearson CEO John Fallon, CNBC Pres. Mark Hoffman  /  FT]

 

Asset manager BlackRock agreed to pay a $340,000 fine to settle SEC charges that it improperly used separation agreements in which exiting employees were forced to waive their ability to obtain whistleblower awards. According to the SEC, BlackRock added the waiver provision in October 2011 after the SEC adopted its whistleblower program rules, and the firm continued using it in separation agreements until March 2016.

 

Apparently more than 1,000 departing BlackRock employees signed separation agreements containing violative language stating that they “waive any right to recovery of incentives for reporting of misconduct” in order to receive their monetary separation payments from the firm.

 

BlackRock voluntarily revised its separation agreement and took a number of remedial actions, including the implementation of mandatory yearly training to summarize employee rights under the SEC’s whistleblower program.