Monthly Archives: August 2013
Life After Whistleblowing
When corporate executives, government employees, or simple truck drivers decide to report regulatory violations or illegal activity, they assume serious risks of loss of livelihood, alienation of friends and even physical safety. The significant financial award given to whistleblowers helps to soften the blow of a likely job loss. However, what rewards are there to […]
Whistleblowers Remain Unwelcome at the White House
I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell. -Harry S. Truman In April 2013, Jonathan Landay, a reporter for McClatchy, the third-largest newspaper publisher in the United States, published a report that the Obama administration assassinated hundreds of lower-level Afghan and Pakistani militants in drone strikes. The […]
War on Whistleblowers Elicits International Attention
A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth. –Aesop Daniel Ellsburg, Karen Silkwood, and W. Mark Felt are usually glorified as brave whistleblowers who risked everything for the truth. In 2002, Time Magazine’s person of the year was The Whistleblowers — Colleen Rowley, Sherron Watkins and Cynthia Cooper. The June 24, […]
Blowing the Whistle and Nobody Hears
When a person assumes the role of a whistleblower to stop the illegal and fraudulent activity of a corporation or governmental agency, it is understood that there may be harsh retaliatory acts taken by the violating organization. One reaction that the whistleblower does not expect is the deafening silence that many hear when they report […]
To Blow or Not to Blow — this is the Whistleblower’s Question
Cheryl D. Eckard was drug giant GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) quality manager. In 2002, she was sent to the company’s primary plant in Puerto Rico to fix problems cited by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Eckard quickly recognized that the company’s premier drug-making facility was a disaster. She recorded and reported to senior managers that […]
Has Eliminating Anonymous Complaints Taken the Air Out of Whistleblowers?
In September 2011, Texas enacted a law prohibiting anonymous complaints to the Texas Medical Board (TMB). Whether the new law has dissuaded people from filing complaints about medical professionals requires further examination. In 2011, the last year anonymous complaints were allowed, 8,182 complaints were filed with the TMB. In 2012, the first year after anonymous […]
Whistleblowing with The False Claims Act
The top 30 False Claims Act settlements of 2012 totaled $9,094,474,000. Initiated by whistleblowers, the top three settlements involved $3 billion from GlaxoSmithKline for illegal marketing of prescription drugs, $1.5 billion from Abbott Laboratories for off-label marketing of Depakote and $1 billion from Bank of America for mortgage and bank fraud. The Federal False Claims […]
Five of the All-Time Biggest Whistleblowers
Seek not greatness, but seek truth and you will find both. -Horace Mann From preventing human beings from being used like laboratory animals to revealing multi-million dollar price fixing, whistleblowers often sacrifice their careers and even their lives to reveal the truth. Here are five prominent whistleblowers: Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg was a Harvard graduate, […]
The Texas Whistleblower’s Whistle Did not Blow Against TAMUK
Gertrud Moreno was an assistant vice-president and comptroller of Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK). She claimed that her supervisor, Thomas Saban, terminated her after she reported to TAMUK’s president that Saban’s daughter received in-state tuition in violation of state law. After being fired, Moreno sued TAMUK alleging violation of the Texas Whistleblower Act. Elements of the […]
