December 20, 2016

Oklahoma-based oil-and-gas company SandRidge Energy Inc. will pay a $1.4 million penalty, subject to the company’s bankruptcy plan, to settle charges that it used illegal separation agreements and retaliated against a whistleblower who expressed concerns internally about how its reserves were being calculated.  The SEC’s order found that SandRidge regularly used restrictive language in its separation agreements that purported to prohibit outgoing employees from participating in any government investigation or disclosing information potentially harmful or embarrassing to the company.  The SEC’s order further found that SandRidge fired an internal whistleblower who kept raising concerns about the process used by SandRidge to calculate its publicly reported oil-and-gas reserves.  SEC

Tagged in: SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Whistleblower Protection Laws,