Technical Staff
May 24, 2021
Because of the nature of fraud and corruption, tips account for more than half of all cases. Thanks to courageous whistleblowers, several large-scale fraud cases have been revealed. “A belatedly celebrated whistleblower who was ignored by everybody, Markopolos tried, umpteen times, to raise the alarm about Bernard Madoff’s $65bn (£43bn) Ponzi scheme which imploded at the end of 2008, leaving thousands of charities, hedge funds, pensioners and Hollywood stars bereft of billions of dollars.” 1
Pav Gill, Wirecard‘s first in-house lawyer in the Asia-Pacific region, is the whistleblower who helped uncover the global mega corruption of Wirecard 2. Mr. Gill said, “they tried to destroy me, manfully, professionally, emotionally” 3.
In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) currently has a whistleblowing program that proved to be successful in deterring, preventing, and uncovering securities fraud. There is plenty of information about the program on the SEC website at the Office of the Whistleblower. On May 19, 2021, the SEC “announced an award to a whistleblower totaling more than $28 million in connection with an SEC enforcement action and a related action by another federal agency. 4“
More to be done
In many countries, there are not laws that are designed to encourage, protect, and reward whistleblowers. The absence of such laws is most likely a red flag about the high corruption levels in a country.
Notes
1 The Guardian. Read more on https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/mar/24/bernard-madoff-whistleblower-harry-markopolos
2 Financial Times. Read more on https://www.ft.com/content/1d74221e-1321-4f8c-9ca9-a4371629f178
3 Ibid
4 Read more on https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2021-86
