Should Whistleblowers Be Protected

According to Benston (1977) an unaware public pays for government-required accounting disclosure. Sunstein (1999) claims that disclosure of information allows the federal government to control public and private conduct. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Over the decades accounting regulations have come from various sources. The Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Internal Revenue Service and Interstate Commerce Commission are examples of regulatory bodies that promulgate accounting regulations. A more recent example occurred during the 1970s. During the Watergate era there were a number of investigations, some of which affected American business. One of the investigations, conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1975, revealed that 19 publiclyheld corporations had made illegal campaign contributions and that these contributions were made from cash accounts that had not been recorded on the corporation’s books. (Heldack, 1977) This prompted the SEC to launch an investigation into what were considered ―questionable payments.‖ What came out of the investigation was that many U.S. multinational corporations were making hundreds of millions of dollars in ―questionable payments‖ to foreign officials to obtain business. As a result, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was unanimously adopted by Congress in 1977. Bribery of foreign officials to obtain business for the corporation

Furthermore, a government can usually make some request for an extension. In this case, the government can take over win or settle relator to receive 15% and 25% from the government award. It will depend on his involvement case. Also, the government cannot be intervening to the relator to choose whether it may continue by his own. If Dr. Prost wins he will recover some 30% of the government awards up to 30%. His court will be reducing some relator awards that are involved from the improper activities from the event. I will give some example if an employee will depend on the contractor to discovered his boss it was defrauding the government. The employee can be a file from the False Claims Act that can suit from the qui tam against his employee. By filling the suit the Department of Justice will make some consultation with the Local District Attorney. It can choose the intervene. The employee would be entitled from the percentage 15% and 25% of the governments awards. Throughout this topic, some False Claim act can be relator that should be entitled to the whistleblower

The memorandum written by Deputy Attorney General, Sally Quillian Yates represents a significant change in the government's approach toward corporate misconduct. The priority for prosecution will focus on individuals who commit the wrongdoing within the corporation and ensure that the responsible individuals are accountable for their misconduct. Under the Yates Memo, for companies to be considered eligible for any cooperation credit, the corporation is required to provide the Department of Justice with all relevant facts about an individuals' involvement in the organizations misconduct. Thus, corporations may no longer have the option to determine what information about which employees can be disclosed to the prosecutors. As a matter of fact,

For many whistleblowers, fear of persecution and retaliation has prevented them from speaking out against improper behaviors at their institutions. Because of the dangers that whistleblowers are exposed to, many companies have become proactive in promoting and protecting whistleblowing. As a case and point, we need to look no further than the banking giant, Barclays.

Since the 1960s, the public value of whistle blowing has been increasingly recognized. Whistle blowing statutes protect from discharge or discrimination an employee who has initiated an investigation of an employer’s activities or who has otherwise cooperated with a regulatory agency in carrying out an inquiry or the enforcement of regulations. Many states have enacted whistle blower statutes, but these statutes vary widely in coverage. Some statutes apply only to public employees, some apply to both public and private employees, and others apply to public contractors. Under the federal False Claims Act, any person with knowledge of false claims or fraud against the institution may bring a lawsuit in his or

Because the federal government’s myriad agencies are headquartered in Washington, D.C., the rules of personal jurisdiction render the D.C. Circuit a forum for many anti-fraud suits against government contractors. For instance, under the False Claims Acct (FCA), a suit may be filed in any United States judicial district in which at least one of the named defendants to the suit “can be found, resides, transacts business,” or has made false claims to the government as proscribed in the FCA. Any corporate defendant headquartered Washington, D.C. is therefore within the personal jurisdiction of

The 1983 film Silkwood, was inspired by Karen Silkwood of the monumental Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corp. (81-2159) whistleblowing case. Silkwood, a union activist and whistleblower who worked at the Cimarron, Oklahoma Kerr-McGee Nuclear Fuel Processing facility from August, 1972 through November 1974. While the activist was investigating alleged wrongdoing, specifically plutonium contaminations on her body and throughout her house, she was killed in a suspicious auto accident. The case portrayed in film shows implications for modern whistleblowers, set a precedent and was essential in creating proper protections for whistleblowers. This paper will analyze the context of Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corp. in modern day whistleblowing.

Freeman, M. (2012). Chapter 91: The Bell Tolls for Local Government Corruption. Mcgeorge Law Review, 43(3),

Facts: Murray Taxpayer was previously employed by a company who was illegally dumping chemicals into a river. Murray had knowledge concerning these illegal activities of his employer and made an ethical decision to report this to the Environmental Protection Agency. Upon inspection, the Environmental Protection Agency determined that Murrays employer was in fact illegally dumping and was appropriately fined for the charges. Murray’s employer reacted to his whistleblowing by firing him and making deliberate efforts to prevent Murray from gaining employment elsewhere. Murray then sued his former employer for damaging

According to Phillips, (1993) “a Qui Tam action is one brought under the False Claims Act by a private plaintiff on behalf of the federal government (rather than by the government itself)”.The Federal False Claims Act, (FCA) sometimes referred to as the “Whistleblower law”. According to Phillips,(1993) “whistleblower law was enacted in 1863, but amended in 1986 which states the federal government protects employees in the United States from retaliating action for voluntarily disclosing information about dishonest or illegal activities occurring at a government organization”. The FCA has become an important tool for uncovering fraud and abuse of government programs. The FCA compensates the private whistleblowers, known as the relator, if the government recovers fraudulently obtained government

Thankfully, the American government is not corrupt. They do not have a history of hiding important findings from the general public. Government officials don't ever try to steal money from honest hard-working citizens. They are guiltless of all crimes and honest.

advantageous information, and the abuse by the government and lack of legal protection provided to these whistleblowers.

Ultimately, the Federal False Claims Acts was enacted to serve as a deterrent for overcharging and defrauding the United States government. This act will not stop all contractors for attempting swindle the government. The hope is that fraud allegations will be uncovered through various process such as audits. Another manner that acts of fraud can be brought to light is through employees or former employees that serve as whistle-blowers. Once the department of justice pursues litigation accountants can play an important role in court. Although it cannot stop all acts of fraud, the Federal False Claims Act ultimately helps the government protects itself from fraud and

An organization is not expected to have all the facts when they first begin to make these disclosures, and will not be penalized for not providing all information initially, if they don’t know it. Organizations must supplement the information provided to the DOJ as they learn more. Press Release, Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates, Deputy Delivers Remarks at the New York City Bar Association White Collar Crime Conference (May 10, 2016),

The government examination on Solyndra looked to build up whether elected laws were disregarded. In the long run the congressional report built up that Solyndra case had abused vitality demonstration of 2005, particularly bureau of vitality affirmed advance certification by neglecting to take after due procedure. The panel additionally assessed how division of vitality oversaw government credit ensures (Weiner, 2012). The examinations unveiled that there was an irreconcilable circumstance in honoring Solyndra credit ensure subsequent to the real shareholder of the organization had political alliance with white house (Upton, 2012). In this manner, they inferred this may have impacted the rapid endorsement of credit surety to Solyndra (McNeil, 2013). This situation demonstrated unscrupulous behavior by the white house authorities and Solyndra chiefs on the grounds that they knew about irreconcilable circumstance. Solyndra directors likewise professedly damaged expense avoidance laws by petitioning for chapter 11 with the goal that they can keep a huge number of government advance as working misfortunes. This was a reasonable deviation from their ethical commitment to take after organization principles and regulations and also ensuring the enthusiasm of specialists. Solyndra slighted the procurements of Laborer Conformities and Retraining Notice (Caution) act, which expresses that specialists must be given sixty days cautioning before release. Nonetheless, the administration declined to recognize these procurements and laid-off all laborers when it petitioned for chapter 11. Couple of months after the fact, specialists sued the organization and recouped $3.5 million as a remuneration for wrong lay-offs (Bathon,