Who needs to work when you can just expose your boss’ criminal ways and retire with the “whistelblower” proceeds?
That’s the question three former Merrill Lynch insiders will ask themselves after their tips led to both a successful enforcement against parent company Bank of America in a $415 million settlement for engaging in complex transactions which allowed the bank to reduce the amount of client funds that had to be set aside in reserve accounts and – more importantly – the largest ever whistleblower award amounting to $83 million.
Two of the recipients will split a $50 million award, while a third person will receive $33 million for a tip in the same case.
The previous record was $30 million in 2014 – all done under an award provision under the post-crisis Dodd-Frank law.
“Karen Hudes used to be a key pro at the World Bank until she joined the dots & blew the whistle. Here she joins with what David Icke has been trying to get over for nearly 30 years.
An E&Y whistleblower claims his former employer is guilty of suppressing information about money laundering and other wrongdoing in its audit of a Dubai gold company.
Amjad Rihan is suing his former employer and has accused E&Y of continuing to work with Kaloti group after he blew the whistle in 2014.
Kaloti group is accused of painting gold bars silver to avoid export restrictions and of doing business with organisations listed by US authorities as fronts for terrorism and organised crime, according to documents filed in the high court.
E&Y and Kaloti group have denied any wrongdoing.
LONDON — Big Four consulting firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) has been accused of “unlawful, unprofessional, and unethical” behaviour relating to its audit of a Dubai gold company accused of money laundering and buying gold from conflict zones.
The allegations were made in documents, seen by the Guardian, filed in the high court by lawyers acting for Amjad Rihan, a former E&Y partner who blew the whistle on the alleged scandal in 2014.
Whistleblowing stories have become something of a commonplace, as a stream of Techdirt posts attests. Some leaks offer massive revelations, like the documents released by Chelsea Manning, or Edward Snowden. Others are smaller scale, but expose unsuspected activities that powerful people were trying to keep in the shadows. Here, for example, is a recent leak published in the Guardian about big companies spying on law-abiding organizations that dare to disagree with them:
They shine a rare light on a habitually secretive industry in which large firms hire covert operatives to monitor and infiltrate political groups that object to their commercial activities. At a premium is advance information, tipping off the firms about protests that are being organised against them.
As the Snowden files proved, leaks about government activities can have particularly important knock-on consequences in terms of improving the balance of power between citizens and their supposed representatives. Perhaps because of that effect, the Australian government plans to bring in new laws that could see whistleblowers jailed for 20 years:
“Web beacons typically go unnoticed. A tiny file is loaded as part of a webpage. Once this file is accessed, it records unique information about you, such as your IP address and sends this back to the creator of the beacon.”…
During the third and last presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, debate moderator Chris Wallace pulled a quote from a speech Clinton had given to Brazilian bankers, noting the information had been made available to the public via WikiLeaks.
Instead of answering the question, Clinton blamed the Russian government for the leaks, alleging “[t]he Russian government has engaged in espionage against Americans,” hacking “American websites, American accounts of private people, of institutions … in an effort, as 17 of our intelligence agencies have confirmed, to influence our election.”
Following the claim, Clinton criticized Trump for saying “[Clinton] has no idea whether it’s Russia, China, or anybody else,” repeating her assertion that 17 U.S. intelligence agencies had determined the Russian government had been behind the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hack.
Despite her claim, reality couldn’t be more different.
At the height of the financial crisis, when risk assets were imploding and counterparties were in danger of overnight collapse, Deutsche Bank avoided failure and nationalization by fabricating the value of its $130 billion derivative portfolio of “leveraged super senior” trades.
Some history: back in 2005, these trades were seen as “the next big thing” in the world of credit derivatives, something which DB at the time was building a massive position in. They were designed to behave like the most senior tranche of a typical collateralised debt obligation, where assets such as mortgages or credit default swaps are pooled to give investors varying degrees of risk exposure. Deutsche became the biggest operator in this market, which involved banks buying insurance against the possibility of default by some of the safest companies, the FT writes.
What is it about whistleblowers that the powers that be can’t stand?
When I blew the whistle on the CIA’s illegal torture program, I was derided in many quarters as a traitor. My detractors in the government attacked me for violating my secrecy agreement, even as they ignored the oath we’d all taken to protect and defend the Constitution.
All of this happened despite the fact that the torture I helped expose is illegal in the United States. Torture also violates a number of international laws and treaties to which our country is signatory — some of which the United States itself was the driving force in drafting.
During the first Democrat presidential debate, Hillary Clinton was asked about Edward Snowden and what she thought of his actions. Her response: “He could have been a whistleblower. He could have gotten all of the protections of being a whistleblower. He could have raised all the issues that he has raised. And I think there would have been a positive response to that.”
Three points here:
First, as a mere contractor, Snowden was not covered by whistleblower protections.
Second: he did in fact try going through established channels, but as expected, nobody cared.
The third point is perhaps most important. To illustrate it we use the example of Darrell Whitman who worked as a San Francisco-based investigator for the Whistleblower Protection Program – the very Federal agency tasked with offering protection to whistleblowers – when he went public with claims that the agency failed to defend workers who faced retaliation for reporting illegal activity and public safety concerns.
The devastating and explosive complaint concerns scientific misconduct in a now-infamous 2004 CDC study, which gave the MMR vaccine a free pass and concluded the vaccine had no connection to autism.
CDC whistleblower William Thompson was a co-author on that study, and on August 27 he admitted he and his co-authors committed fraud and covered up the vaccine-autism connection.
Edward Snowden has hit out at Dropbox and other services he says are “hostile to privacy,” urging web users to abandon unencrypted communication and adjust privacy settings to prevent governments from spying on them in increasingly intrusive ways.
“We are no longer citizens, we no longer have leaders. We’re subjects, and we have rulers,” Snowden told The New Yorker magazine in a comprehensive hour-long interview.
In this special double episode of Truthstream News, Aaron and Melissa take on the CDC whistleblower and MMR-autism scandal (and that’s just for starters) — exposing the lies and obfuscations that have hurt untold numbers. Recently released audio of the good doc has now been leaked where he says he would NEVER shoot his pregnant wife up with a thimerosal-containing vaccine.
It’s shameful, but that’s just the icing on the vaccine cake. The evidence that the CDC “hid the decline” of skyrocketing autism rates in connection with a vaccine is just the beginning. Did you know the government’s health agencies never even tested thimerosal, the 50% ethylmercury preservative shot into thousands of children daily for decades and still given to pregnant women in the form of a flu shot? In fact, the CDC says some vaccines given to children still contain trace amounts…
MARYLAND — Federal agents staged a pre-dawn raid on the home of an award-winning investigative journalist, and walked away with hundreds of documents — including a top-secret list of government whistleblowers.
* * * * *
Reporter Audrey Hudson, 50, has spent a career in journalism, once working for the Washington Times, then guiding her career into freelance reporting. The disturbing raid that she endured “shook her to the core” and made her question the security of Americans’ rights and freedoms under its current brand of government.
The first thing she remembers hearing on the morning of August 6th, 2013, was the sound of her dogs barking. It was approximately 4:30 a.m., it was dark outside, and she had been sleeping. Moments later, approximately seven gun-wielding men wearing body armor entered her home and began searching the personal belongings contained within.
As I get ready to post this article, I have a reply to a request I made to Florida Congressman Bill Posey. I asked for a statement regarding the growing charge that the CDC is covering up an autism-vaccine connection. Here is what Congressman Posey has to say on this subject:
“When it comes to our children, we must make sure that any intervention is as safe as possible, including vaccinations. Scientific integrity is a key component to giving that assurance. I will continue to press for a full understanding of the evidence in this situation. The CDC has refused for more than six months to hand over documents I requested concerning this issue. That is not the type of response we expect from our government.”
Congressman stonewalled. He asked the CDC for data and the CDC refused. Refusal=something to hide.
Why else would the CDC ignore Posey’s request? What right does the CDC have to conceal data about vaccines and autism?
The Obama Administration’s Orwellian government employee snitch network, dubbed the “Insider Threat Program,” first made headlines about a year ago. I found it to be so disturbingly significant I wrote a post about it titled: The 3 Key Takeaways from the Ridiculous “Insider Threat Program.”Those 3 key takeaways were that it…
Creates a horrible and counterproductive work environment where everyone distrusts everyone else.
Solidifies the fact the government is not interested in solving problems, but rather is focused on continuing the cronyism and criminality and merely covering it up.
Exposes how completely hopeless and terminal the status quo is.
Fast forward a year, and it appears that several members of Congress are also becoming increasingly concerned. Some are starting to ask questions, but as usual, the “most transparent administration in history” is entirely nontransparent. We learn from the Washington Post that:
At least 80 percent of all audio calls are gathered and stored by the NSA, whistleblower William Binney has revealed. The former code-breaker says the spy agency’s ultimate aim is no less than total population control.
The National Security Agency lies about what it stores, said William Binney, one of the highest profile whistleblowers to ever emerge from the NSA, at a conference in London organized by the Center for Investigative Journalism on July 5. Binney left the agency shortly after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center because he was disgusted at the organizations move towards public surveillance.
“At least 80 percent of fiber-optic cables globally go via the US,” Binney said. “This is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in. At least 80 percent of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about what it stores.”
“At least 80% of fibre-optic cables globally go via the U.S. This is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in. At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about what it stores.”
Bill Binney is no joke. He worked for the NSA for 30 years before resigning because of concerns he had regarding illegal spying on U.S. citizens in 2001. It seems that the claim I and many others have made for years, that the “War on Terror” is a gigantic fraud used to instill fear and further the creation of an unconstitutional surveillance state in America is absolutely true. The “terrorists” they have declared war on are the American people themselves.
Mr. Binney thankfully has never stopped fighting for The Constitution that he swore to defend, unlike most other government officials who happily stomp all over the basic civil liberties enshrined in our founding document. He had some very choice words recently and it would be wise for all of us on planet earth to pay very close attention.
For the first time, a whistle-blower from within the DIA complex confirms the existence of a massive deep underground military facility located beneath the airport
DENVER — The Denver International Airport (DIA) is nestled on a vast 53 square mile complex and is owned and operated by the City of Denver. In fact, it’s the largest airport in the United States, in terms of land mass garnered, and the second largest airport in the world to Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd International Airport as I pointed out in my appearance on the Travel Channel series America Declassified.
The airport serves over 50 million passengers a year and is now incorporating a massive new project called “Airport City” an aerotropolis which has been presented publicly by the Mayor of Denver, Michael Hancock, who respectively declined an interview with Intellihub News. However, interestingly, the new aerotropolis will incorporate an expansive business district with new lodging as well as an agricultural and technical district within the confines of the airport property to attract more revenue to Denver’s growing economy. In fact, between the planed aerotropolis and Colorado’s booming marijuana industry, DIA just might be the next biggest thing since sliced bread.
“For lack of a better term, you’ve got an organized crime syndicate,” a whistleblower who works in the Texas VA told The Daily Beast. “People up on top are suddenly afraid they may actually be prosecuted and they’re pressuring the little guys down below to cover it all up.”
What’s worse, the documents show the wrongdoing going unpunished for years, even after it was repeatedly reported to local and national VA authorities. That indicates a new troubling angle to the VA scandal: that the much touted investigations may be incapable of finding violations that are hiding in plain sight.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week or so, you are probably well aware of the latest in a consistent stream of scandals that have rocked the Obama Administration since he took office over five years ago. Yes, I am referring to the Veterans Affairs (VA) scandal, and while you might think you have read enough on the topic, the following article is very important.
It tells the tale of a VA hospital in Texas that had institutionalized the practice of manipulating hospital wait lists many years ago. For example, all the way back in 2011, the VA’s inspector general investigated the Central Texas health-care system in response to complaints received. Despite finding that such manipulation was rampant, not a single VA official was disciplined. As you might expect, the practice continued and the hospital highlighted in this article actually received an award in the face of an OIG investigation!
He was politically conservative, a gun owner, a geek – and the man behind the biggest intelligence leak in history. In this exclusive extract from his new book, Luke Harding looks at Edward Snowden’s journey from patriot to America’s most wanted
TheTrueHOOHA wanted to set up his own web server. It was a Saturday morning, a little after 11am. He posted: “It’s my first time. Be gentle. Here’s my dilemma: I want to be my own host. What do I need?”
Soon, regular users were piling in with helpful suggestions. TheTrueHOOHA replied: “Ah, the vast treasury of geek knowledge that is Ars.” He would become a prolific contributor; over the next eight years, he authored nearly 800 comments. He described himself variously as “unemployed”, a failed soldier, a “systems editor”, and someone who had US State Department security clearance.
Obama adviser and heads of House and Senate intelligence signal hard line despite European support for whistleblower
Edward Snowden with Hans-Christian Stroebele. Photo: Irina Oho/HO/EPA
The White House and leading lawmakers have rejected Edward Snowden’s plea for clemency and said he should return to the United States to face trial.
Dan Pfeiffer, an Obama administration adviser, said on Sunday the NSA whistleblower’s request was not under consideration and that he should face criminal charges for leaking classified information. Dianne Feinstein and Mike Rogers, respectively the heads of the Senate and House intelligence committees, maintained the same tough line and accused Snowden of damaging US interests.
KING 5 News, Nov. 1, 2013:Hanford whistleblower: ‘I was now the enemy’ […] [Dr. Walt] Tamosaitis determined that the mixers, as designed, would not be able to mix the waste sufficiently, posing a risk that heavy radioactive elements would collect at the bottom of the tanks and begin a nuclear chain reaction. The reaction, in turn, would generate large amounts of explosive hydrogen gas (a similar hydrogen build up at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan caused large explosions after the 2011 Tsunami damaged that facility). […] “The worst case scenario would be a criticality and trapping of hydrogen gas which could lead to a hydrogen explosion,” said Tamosaitis. […] URS moved Tamosaitis to another building where he was assigned to a makeshift office in the basement. He sat alone in a cramped space full of storage boxes, rat poison feeders and copy machines. He was not assigned any work and had no boss to report to. “The message was, ‘Don’t do what Walter did. Don’t raise issues. Shut up (and) do what we say,’” said Tamosaitis. […] The Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board and the Government Accountability Office both issued reports highlighting Tamosaitis’ work. And in early 2012 Energy Secretary Steven Chu ordered a halt to WTP construction.
Top: Whistleblower Charles Varnadore; Bottom: Milton from the movie ‘Office Space’. Some may see similarities in the treatment of Milton and the whistleblowers. Watch clips of Milton from ‘Office Space’ here.
New York Times, Aug. 5, 2013: After Charles D. Varnadore complained about safety at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory […] his bosses moved him to an office containing radioactive waste. When an industrial hygienist recommended that either he or the waste be moved, he was put in a room contaminated with mercury [“visible mercury was in several places”]. […] His difficulties began in 1990, after he returned to work following colon cancer surgery. He found that his replacement had shortcomings in handling lab samples, and he pointed this out to his superiors […] he was given a storage room as an office […] The room contained bags and drums of radioactive waste, as well as bags of asbestos and chemical waste. […] “The only conclusion which can be drawn from this record is that they intentionally put him under stress with full knowledge that he was a cancer patient recovering from extensive surgery and lengthy chemotherapy,” the judge, Theodor P. Von Brand, wrote in his decision. […] Judge Von Brand sent the matter to the labor secretary, Robert B. Reich [who] dismissed some of Mr. Varnadore’s charges on the ground that they had been filed too late, and he dismissed others because he did not believe that they had been proved conclusively. […]
Perhaps Mr. Tomaisitis would disagree with these statements in the New York Times article:
Mr. Varnadore’s complaints also led to stronger laws and practices governing employees who dare to blow the whistle on powerful employers
“No other whistle-blower will ever be treated that way again,” [said Varnadore’s lawyer]
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