There's been a lot of talk about the fate of whistleblowers (whistleblower news) these days. One interesting case has emerged at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), where ex-vice president Jennifer Sharkey has accused JPMorgan of firing her in August 2009 because of her view that the bank should break ties with an Israeli customer who generated lots of business.

She has claimed whistleblower status under Sarbanes-Oxley (Sarbanes-Oxley news), but the bank has disagreed and wants the case thrown out. The issue here is that her claims do not deal with fraud (fraud news) at the bank but rather with fraud on the part of a client. She believes that the wrong-doing, even at the client level, still affected the finances of her company. She is asking for reinstatement, back pay and other money damages, among other things.

For the record, JPMorgan says it has an anti-retaliation policy in its code of conduct, but not in Sharkey's employment contract, according to Reuters. This is working its way through the courts now. 

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