What is a Whistleblower?

A Whistleblower is known as a person who leaks information on a person or group that is engaged in activities that are thought to be unethical, incorrect, or illegal within a public or private organization, an abuse of power, mismanagement, or something that is dangerous towards the safety and health of the public. The actions that can be considered unethical, illegal, or incorrect can be anything ranging from something that is a threat to national security or public interest. The usual purpose of the crime is financial profit by some form of corruption or fraud. The United States government and taxpayers have lost a sizable amount of money from all the cases involving whistleblowers.

Some of the most well-known examples of Whistleblower Cases is Quest Diagnostic, Northrop Grumman, and Pfizer Inc.. Quest Diagnostic involved a large medical lab company who ended up paying a $302 million settlement, $253 million of which was awarded to the whistleblower.   

Whistleblowers take quite a bit of risks with the amount of repercussions that can come from them exposing information. Due to this, there are a large amount of laws to protect them just in case, depending on the factors of what they exposed. However, the protection can only protect them so much and they can still be arrested/ charged for exposing/being involved with who committed the actions exposed.

I chose to write about whistleblowers because I found the overall topic of all the different rules, laws, and aspects that play into it very interesting. I had never heard of the topic before this class and will now be looking for any issues that could apply to it in the future.
Click here to learn more information about the Whistleblowers Protection Program.