Outten & Golden recently defeated Coupang, Inc.’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging it violated whistleblower protections when it fired its head of anti-money laundering compliance.
On March 25, 2025, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones found that O&G’s client brought a valid whistleblower claim under the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act against Coupang, a South Korea-based e-commerce company. The whistleblower, who worked in Seoul, alleged he was fired in retaliation for urging the company to report transactions with Iranian entities to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Coupang argued that the whistleblower didn’t qualify for SOX protections because he lived and worked outside the United States. However, Judge Jones ruled that the plaintiff’s SOX claim could survive because of his job’s U.S. ties: He is a U.S. citizen, he worked with U.S.-based colleagues, he reported potential violations of U.S. securities laws, and his termination was decided by people who were based in the United States.
O&G partner Jennifer Schwartz called our client’s victory “vindication of the breadth of the SOX Act’s coverage.”
“Employees don’t lose their whistleblower protections just because they live and work abroad,” said Cassandra Lenning, another O&G partner involved in the case. “Our client was hired to audit corporate compliance, and that’s exactly what he did when brought suspected illegal transactions to light.”
O&G’s legal team includes Schwartz, Lenning, and associate Kendall N. Onyendu.