What Everybody Dislikes About A Whistleblower - And Why

Recently reported fraudulent activity in Wall Street and the Iraqi War has brought whistleblowers to the forefront of national media. Whistleblowers are people who, often acting under the False Claims Act, realize than an individual, company or organization is defrauding governmental programs and file lawsuits on the government’s behalf. Common sense would often dictate that these people be considered heroes, but this is often not the case once the cards fall. There are several reasons that these people are vilified by others.








1) Investigations Can Be Costly
A whistleblower will often end up costing some companies millions of dollars. Even when a person’s direct supervisor and other managerial staff are not implicated in the fraud, they will definitely be affected. Costly investigations also regularly stem from allegations of fraud and everyone in a management position is often subjected to invasions of their private lives during these inquiries. As one whistleblower attorney surmised most people do not take kindly to this.

2)  Negative Publicity
The bad publicity that a fraud allegation brings can further cause managerial staff to be angry at the whistleblower. The publicity will reflect negatively on anyone in a management position regardless of whether or not they were involved in any illegal activity. Companies will sometimes try to cover up the fraud once it is brought to light, and in doing so may vilify the whistleblower to others by making it seem as if they are greedy liars.

3) Loss of Jobs
Maybe the most detrimental result of an organization’s fraudulent activities being brought to light is the loss of jobs it could cost. If the accusation of fraud is revealed to be true, the company will have to pay back all fraudulently obtained money and possibly more. This can seriously damage a company’s ability to pay their employees. In a worst case scenario the company may even have to shut down.

These job losses are often capable of making co-workers of the whistleblower very upset with their colleague. Hundreds, if not thousands of people can lose their jobs when the government recovers fraudulently obtained funds. Anyone working at any place of employment will by happenchance make a few friends at their job, and these friends very often feel betrayed when they lose their jobs due to the situation.

4) Appearance of Greed
The aforementioned reasons as to why people often vilify whistleblowers could possibly be looked over by co-workers and management if the only reward to whistleblowing was a clear conscious. This isn’t the case though. Whistleblowers who bring actions against individuals and organizations often do intense investigative work before blowing the whistle. The question often arises as to why they put so much effort into the endeavor, and the answer is sometimes related to greed.

The False Claims Act was passed during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, and it has been amended several times since. It has always stated, however, that a whistle blower will receive a percentage of any of the money that the government recovers. Whistleblowers usually get around fifteen to twenty-five percent of recovered money. This often doesn’t sit well with other employees within the company. Once a person realizes that their job is in jeopardy whilst their co-worker is possibly bringing in millions of dollars from their actions, it can be a little difficult to ever look at the whistleblower in the same way again.

Between 1987 and 2008 the federal government recovered almost twenty-two billion dollars through the help of whistleblowers. People on the outside may look in and say that these people are champions of the law and plain old fashioned fairness, but this isn’t always the case when a person is caught up in these situations. Corporate structures are unfortunately set up in a way that ends up hurting everyone at the bottom of a corporation when those at the top fall from grace. It is because of this structure and the rewards that a whistleblower receives that they may never be accepted as the heroes some people believe them to be.

Georgina Clatworthy is a legal writer and former law blog editor currently writing as a contributing author for the Attorneys of Goldberg Kohn.  Anyone wishing to pursue a case under the False Claims Act is advised to contact a whistleblower attorney at the firm to discuss how to proceed. Their attorneys have the resources and experience necessary to take on even the biggest corporations and will work to protect your rights every step of the way.