This is a list of major whistleblowers from various countries. The individuals below brought attention to abuses of government or large corporations. Many of these whistleblowers were fired from their jobs or prosecuted in the process of shining light on their issue of concern. This lists whistleblowers associated with events that were sufficiently notable to merit a Wikipedia article either about the Whistleblower or the event; "Year" is the year of the event. This list is not exhaustive.
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2000s
2000s
In 2003, a California police officer was shot and killed while wearing a vest made with Zylon fiber, prompting Westrick to file a False Claims Act lawsuit against SCBA and Toyobo Co., Ltd. in 2004.[156] In 2005, the United States Government intervened in the case on behalf of Westrick and after a 13-year legal battle with the Japanese manufacturer of Zylon, Toyobo Co. Ltd., the company agreed to pay a $66 million settlement to the United States for damages.[157][158] Watkins emailed Enron founder Kenneth Lay about fraudulent accounting at the company, and two months later Enron lost $1.2 billion in shareholder equity. Four months later, the company went bankrupt and had to seek bankruptcy protection.[169][170] When Enron was investigated by Congress, Watkins testified about the fraud at Enron and her experience going to Lay about the issues in the company.[171] She has since been active in whistleblower advocacy, speaking at the 2019 celebration of National Whistleblower Day.[172] Watkins also submitted comments in August 2019 about the SEC's proposed amendments to their whistleblower program.[173] Watkins was named Time's People of the Year in 2002.[174][175] She was, in her professional life, formerly a vice president at UBS Financial Services.[180] City officials and pension board trustees created a multi-year smear campaign,[181] including filing ethics charges against her[182] and plotting to have her arrested by the San Diego City Police.[183] The scandal caused widespread fallout in the city's political and financial sectors.[184] Several city officials resigned, including the City Auditor, City Manager, City Treasurer[185] and the Mayor. The City became the target of two federal investigations[186] and in November 2006, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission entered an order sanctioning the City of San Diego for committing securities fraud.[186] Shipione was eventually proven right about her concerns[187] and received public recognition for her pension system related services from many civic organizations in San Diego.
[199] Sandra Martinez Cam, who is a native of Batuan, Masbate, Philippines rose to fame after exposing several scams involving public officials and agencies in the Philippine government. Among these are the "jueteng" (illegal numbers game) scandal, the presence of illegal drugs and high-powered firearms at the Bureau of Corrections, and the escape of the Reyes brothers via the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). An advocate of women's rights, she also uncovered the sex for flight scandal which victimized several female Overseas Filipino Workers in the Middle East. More recently, the fearless Masbatena said she has obtained information that would shed light on the infamous "tanim-bala" (planting of bullets) scheme at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), which has been going on since 2012.[218][219] Dufault presented research finding to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2005 that showed caustic soda (lye) used in the production and manufacturing of High Fructose Corn Syrup, left trace amounts of mercury in foods containing High Fructose Corn Syrup. After independent testing verified her finding,[220] she attempted to publish her research and was denied usage of Federal extramural data. She left the FDA in 2008 to make her research public.[221][222] Richard Levernier is an American nuclear power whistleblower. Levernier worked for 23 years as a nuclear security professional, and identified security problems at U.S. nuclear facilities as part of his job. Specifically, after 9/11, he identified problems with contingency planning to protect U.S. nuclear plants from terrorist attacks. He said that the assumption that attackers would both enter and exit from facilities was not valid, since suicide terrorists would not need to exit. In response to this complaint, the U.S. Department of Energy withdrew Levernier's security clearance and he was assigned to clerical work. Levernier approached the United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which handles U.S. federal whistleblower matters. It took the OSC four years to vindicate Levernier, ruling that the Department's retaliation was illegal – but the OSC could not reinstate Levernier's security clearance, so he was unable to regain work in nuclear security.[223][224] 2011
2009
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2007
Turner also blew the whistle when she witnessed her colleagues stealing items from Ground Zero of 9/11 during inspections of the site.[261] In 2007, Turner won the final judgement when the Department of Justice vetoed the FBI's appeal of a jury verdict that found the FBI guilty of illegal retaliation against Turner.[262][263] Turner's case has since been used by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the U.S. Senate in understanding how to improve the FBI Whistleblower Program.[264][265] 2009
2012
[288] Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to actively promoting Zyprexa for off-label uses, particularly for the treatment of dementia in the elderly. The $1.415 billion penalty included an $800 million civil settlement and a $515 million criminal fine—the largest criminal fine for an individual corporation in United States history.[289] Contingent upon the United States receiving the Federal Settlement amount, the nine whistle blowers shared $78,870,877, of the federal share of the civil settlement.[290] 2013
2014
In 2018, news of a massive money laundering scheme and an anonymous internal whistleblower at Danske Bank broke.[319][320] Wilkinson's name was illegally leaked a few days later.[321] In December 2018, Wilkinson testified in front of the Danish Parliament, discussing his role as a whistleblower and addressing the EU whistleblower laws.[322][323] Wilkinson's case was featured on the CBS 60 Minutes television program in May 2019.[324] He appeared before the Philippine Senate on September 15, 2016[336] during a hearing on extra-judicial killings. At the hearing, Matobato recounted his experiences as a killer and narrated how he killed his victims. He revealed that Duterte once killed a certain Hamizola using an Uzi, emptying the gun on the victim. On October 7, 2016, Edgar Matobato was turned over by Senator Antonio Trillanes to the Philippine National Police after an arrest warrant was issued to him.[337] 2017/
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2020
2020
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