Recognizing Whistleblowers

Florida scientist and COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones was fired from the Florida Department of Health in May 2020 for refusing to manipulate data and for asking her supervisor how to file a whistleblower complaint. Ms. Jones built the state’s highly-praised data dashboard and managed all public data during the first five months of the pandemic.  

The Governor of Florida targeted Ms. Jones for her commitment to data transparency and government ...

During the Iraq War, Harry “Hap” Barko, a former contract administrator for KBR/Halliburton in Iraq, discovered that KBR vastly inflated the costs of constructing laundry facilities and providing laundry services on at least three military bases. Barko’s case alleged that KBR and its subcontractors committed national defense fraud violations of the False Claims Act.

While litigating against KBR, Barko learned that KBR had been forcing all its employees with knowledge of fraud to sign ...

Bradley Birkenfeld, a former banker and wealth manager at UBS, was the first international banker to blow the whistle on illegal offshore accounts held in Switzerland by U.S. citizens. For his disclosures of IRS tax fraud by UBS, Birkenfeld was awarded $104 million, the largest reward ever given to an individual in the 25-year history of federal whistleblower reward laws. During his case, NWC provided communications assistance, drumming up public support from thousands ...

In 1999, James Bobreski, a process control technician contracted at the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority’s Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater treatment plant, raised concerns about faulty chlorine gas alarms and the unlawful storage of over 100 tons of liquid chlorine. After attempting to notify supervisors and urging them to make the necessary repairs, he was retaliated against and fired for his whistleblowing.

As reported in the Washington Post, the court ruled that he had ...

Mauro Botta, an Italian-born financial manager, blew the whistle on Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) in 2012 after he allegedly discovered fraud related to conflicts of interest in auditing with PwC and its clients. Botta worked for PwC for 18 years before blowing the whistle, for which he claims he was wrongfully terminated in retaliation to the internal complaints he filed.

Botta reported PwC to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2016 and later went to ...

A veteran math teacher, Mary Bozoyan, publicly criticized the principal of William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens, NY in a grade-fixing scandal and was swiftly retaliated against. Bozoyan’s allegations against the principal included illegally changing grades, falsifying records, stealing school funds, covering up sexual affairs between staff and students, and hiding a hazing incident.

Read: School ‘retaliates’ against disabled teacher for criticizing principal

Johnny Burris, a former JP Morgan financial advisor, blew the whistle while at JP Morgan on financial misconduct relating to his clients’ savings. He alleges that JP Morgan urged him to invest his client’s savings into JP Morgan’s in-house mutual funds and managed accounts.

He claims he was wrongfully terminated and defamed by the bank after reporting the fraud. Recently, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that JP Morgan had, in fact, retaliated against ...

Joseph Carson made disclosures to the Department of Energy regarding specific dangers to public health and safety. In many years of trying, including three appeals to the US Supreme Court, Carson’s whistleblower disclosures involving US Office of Special Counsel and US Merit Systems Protection Board remain unresolved, with no determination as to whether he had “reasonable belief” in them.

Read: The Whistleblower Who Won’t Go Away.

Janet Chandler, a Chicago clinical psychologist, blew the whistle on “violations of patients’ rights scientific protocol” at a federally funded research project at Cook County Hospital on the treatment of pregnant cocaine and heroin addicts and their children.

Chandler brought a successful False Claims Act lawsuit against Cook County Hospital for forging data and failing to comply with federal human research regulations in a federally funded drug abuse study. As a young attorney, President Obama ...

Dr. Coleman-Adebayo sacrificed her career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to speak out against vanadium poisoning in South Africa. She is the author of, NO FEAR: A Whistleblower’s Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at EPA. NO FEAR tells the story of vanadium miners in South Africa and Dr. Coleman-Adebayo’s efforts to protect them. Although she won a historic jury verdict, the EPA continued its retaliation.

Dr. Coleman-Adebayo led the charge against racial discrimination and whistleblower retaliation ...

Cynthia Cooper exposed corporate misconduct in the infamous WorldCom scandal paving the way for the enactment of the SOX corporate reform law.

Cynthia Cooper exploded the bubble that was WorldCom when she informed its board that the company had covered up $3.8 billion in losses through the prestidigitations of phony bookkeeping.

In recognition of her whistleblowing, Cooper (along with Sherron Watkins and Coleen Rowley) was named Time Persons of the Year in 2002.

Julia Davis is a national security whistleblower, anti-terrorism/immigration expert, who exposed glaring shortcomings in the processing of applicants for admission into the U.S. from terrorist countries. Julia served as a Customs and Border Protection Officer at the San Ysidro Port of Entry – the largest and busiest land border crossing in the U.S. and in the world.

Specific intelligence alerts designated 4th of July, 2004 as a “Date to Watch” of paramount importance, when Al ...

Lorenzo Davis, a licensed attorney and former policeman of 24 years and former police commander, blew the whistle on the improper documentation of excessive force cases at the now defunct Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), a civilian police review board in Chicago. Davis became aware of reporting discrepancies at the IPRA after joining as an investigator shortly after retiring, wherein he investigated officer shootings and other excessive force cases.

As an investigator, Davis determined whether ...

Brian Donlon blew the whistle on academic fraud in the Montgomery County Maryland Public School System. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled on July 12, 2018 that public school teachers are not covered under the Maryland Whistleblower Act. Sparked by Donlon’s case the Maryland General Assembly passed the Public School Employee Whistleblower Act  in April of 2017, unfortunately, the law is not retroactive.

Read: Court of Appeals Sides with MCPS ...

Sibel Edmonds is the founder and president of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers. She appears frequently on national radio and TV as a commentator on matters related to whistleblowers, national security, and excessive secrecy & classification.

She has been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, MSNBC, and NPR, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Glamour, and others. Her book, ‘Shooting the ...

Daniel Ellsberg, former United States military analyst, blew the whistle on U.S. Government misconduct in the Vietnam War by leaking the “Pentagon Papers.” The Pentagon Papers revealed that, early on, the government had knowledge that the war as then resourced could most likely not be won.

Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a total maximum sentence of 115 years. Due to governmental misconduct and illegal evidence gathering ...

In 1968, Fitzgerald reported a $2.3 billion cost overrun in the Lockheed C-5 aircraft program. As a congressional witness before the Joint Economic Committee, he testified with candor and transparency about billions of dollars in avionics program cost overruns and other technical problems.

Fitzgerald was illegally fired by President Nixon. Mr. Fitzgerald’s landmark federal whistleblower case resulted in his reinstatement. He was instrumental in the enactment of the Civil Reform Act of 1978 and his ...

Lea Frye, a former senior reservoir engineer at Anadarko Petroleum Corp., raised concerns about the fraudulent overstatement of the value of oil reserves by Anadarko executives. In 2016, Frye filed a complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), alleging investor fraud and insider trading at Anadarko.

Her complaint alleged that executives at Anadarko misled investors and Occidental Petroleum, which purchased Anadarko in 2019, by fraudulently inflating the value of the company’s Shenandoah ...

Bunnatine “Bunny” Greenhouse served as the highest-ranking civilian-contracting official at the Army Corps of Engineers when she blew the whistle on a highly improper $7 billion no-bid contract to Halliburton for the repair of Iraqi oil fields following the 2003 invasion. In retaliation for her disclosures, Greenhouse was removed from her position.

After a long and contentious legal battle, her attorneys, including NWC President Michael Kohn, forced the Army Corps of Engineers to settle the ...

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee, Paul Jayko, discovered that public schools in Marion, Ohio were being built on a former Army toxic waste dump site. After investigating the high occurrence of cancer in the area, Jayko concluded there was a “strong potential for human health risk” and recommended that the Ohio EPA immediately conduct further environmental tests. After making this recommendation, Jayko found that his responsibilities were gradually removed, culminating in a notice ...

Tanya Ward Jordan blew the whistle on gross mismanagement, violation of civil rights laws, abuse of authority and flaws in the Department of Commerce’s application of a personnel pay system in the late 1990’s. As a result of her whistleblowing modifications to the personnel pay system were made; a workforce culture survey was conducted; and certain Commerce units as well as other federal agencies halted implementation of the pay system.

Learn more:
Commerce ...

In October 2005, Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Operations Manager, Robert Kobus, made protected disclosures to FBI senior staff that certain officials were falsifying time records. In response, Kobus was moved to a separate, isolated office in retaliation. Kobus faced internal humiliation at the hands of his FBI colleagues and supervisors, with retaliation ranging from freezing his leave request paperwork to ignoring him completely.

Through legal support from the National Whistleblower Center, Kobus ...

Will Kramer was an occupational health and safety consultant when he documented deeply disturbing conditions and improper handling of hazardous waste at several plants that recondition industrial plastic containers and steel drums. The plants are owned by a publicly traded multinational corporation, Greif Inc.

Kramer reported potential health, safety, environmental and securities violations to government regulators, members of Congress and the news media after the plants failed to address these issues. Workers inside ...

Dr. David Lewis, an internationally renowned microbiologist and former senior research microbiologist with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Office of Research & Development, found that the agricultural use of processed sewage sludge promoted by EPA programs was linked to illnesses and deaths, prompting the EPA officials who developed the Agency’s sewage sludge regulations to shut down his research. Nevertheless, he campaigned to force the EPA to apply appropriate health and safety standards to sewage ...

In 1988, a journeyman electrician working for Halliburton Brown & Root (HB&R), Joe Macktal, reported serious safety defects at the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant. Lawyers at HB&R coerced Macktal into signing “hush money” settlement non-disclosure agreements barring him from reporting his concerns to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

In September 1988, Macktal willfully violated the terms of his settlement, exposing it to the corporate world and challenging its legality. In order to raise ...

Robert MacLean is a former federal air marshal. In July 2003, air marshals received an advisory from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of an imminent Al Qaeda plot targeting long-distance flights. DHS announced two days later that the use of air-marshals on long-distance flights, requiring marshals to stay overnight in hotels, would be eliminated as a cost-cutting measure.  MacLean first brought his concerns to three different officials of the DHS Office of Inspector General. ...

Dr. William Marcus, a Senior Science Advisor at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lost his position after he documented that the Office of Drinking Water-approved and EPA-backed practice of adding fluoride to the nation’s drinking water supplies could lead to an increase in cancer rates in 1990.

Attorneys working with NWC conducted extensive discovery into the case and learned of improper communications between chemical company attorneys and the EPA managers, including direct documentation that ...

Michael McCray blew the whistle on $40 million of waste, fraud and abuse during the Clinton Administration at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He subsequently engaged in judicial reform efforts by filing a judicial complaint that contributed to the early of retirement of disgraced Federal District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson (U.S. vs. Microsoft); and he was the National Spokesman for the ACORN 8, which reported a multi-million embezzlement at the Association of Community Organizations for ...

Daniel P. Meyer is a three-time whistleblower who most recently served as the Executive Director for Intelligence Community Whistleblowing & Source Protection, specializing in national security whistleblower cases. He was removed from his position in March of 2018, a decision that has come under sharp review by Members of Congress. Mr. Meyer is also a decorated naval officer for his service during the Persian Gulf War.

Mr. Meyer first exposed investigative misconduct during the investigation ...

Charles Middleton, a former senior tax executive at General Electric, Caterpillar, Walmart Inc. and Oxbow Carbon LLC, filed allegations that one or more of his former employers engaged in improper practices that resulted in the underpayment of tax. He alleges that in retaliation for filing his complaints with the IRS he was fired and is now being blackballed by past and potential corporate employers.

Learn more:
IRS ‘Black Hole’ Swallows Whistleblower Against Koch, Walmart

Marrita Murphy was a former employee of the New York Air National Guard who blew the whistle on their violations of six environmental statutes. Murphy was subsequently blacklisted in the industry for her disclosures. Murphy received compensation and damages for the retaliation she experienced, and her case set a precedent prohibiting the badmouthing of whistleblowers seeking employment.

Following her initial success, Murphy fought against the unfair taxation of whistleblower court awards for loss of ...

Jason Piccolo is a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower. He blew the whistle in 2015 on the review practices for potential sponsors of unaccompanied alien children.  Some children were being placed with sponsors with violent criminal histories. Senator Chuck Grassley sent a letter to DHS regarding Piccolo’s allegations. Piccolo’s efforts caused DHS to make changes to its process and procedures of vetting sponsors.

Learn More:
Obama Administration Allegedly Releasing Unaccompanied Minors into ...

Edward Pierson, a former manager at a Washington Boeing factory, raised concerns to his supervisors about the rushed production of the 737 Max aircraft that was plagued with overworked employees, missing parts, and pressure from Boeing to complete.

Pierson testified before Congress in December of 2019 stating that his warnings were ignored after he formally warned Boeing leadership of the risk of sending out these aircrafts. Pierson claimed Boeing was prioritizing production speed over quality ...

Jhonna Porter, a charge nurse at HCA-owned West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles, was suspended after she informed colleagues that their hospital unit was to be converted to care exclusively for COVID-19 patients. Out of concern for the safety of her fellow nurses, Porter posted in a private social media group with only nurses from her floor, to alert them to the change and to caution them to be careful.  Shortly thereafter, she made a ...

Mr. Potter blew the whistle on the health insurance industry. He gave testimony before Congress regarding the health insurances industry’s role in the rising costs of health care and the growing number of uninsured and under-insured Americans. Potter’s testimony resulted in major reforms that were included in the Affordable Care Act.

Learn More:
The Making of a Health-Care Whistle-Blower
Ex-executive accuses insurance giant of ‘purging’ customers

Disclaimer: The purpose of this ...

Robert Ranghelli was fired from the National Funeral Home in VA for blowing the whistle on the company’s mishandling of bodies. Mr. Ranghelli publicly corroborated allegations that military veterans awaiting burial at Arlington National Cemetery were stored unrefrigerated and allowed to decompose before burial.

Articles related to Ranghelli’s case:

• Family Asks Fairfax Prosecutor to Investigate Funeral Home
• ‘I Never Could Have Imagined’
• VA funeral home accused of atrocious conditions

Marcel Reid’s whistleblowing forced ACORN to stop misusing public funds and return to their core decentralized mission. Afterwards, she went on to join the National Board of Directors of Pacifica Radio and have Pacifica become the first national media organization to vote to support whistleblowers. Reid also became the first Whistleblower Liaison in Major Media. She now organizes the annual Whistleblower Summit for Civil and Human Rights with Michael McCray.

Notably, Marcel Reid obtained

Daniel Richardson reported his employer Bristol-Myers Squibb for illegal marketing drugs which resulted in increased Medicare and Medicaid costs. Richardson, and other whistleblowers, filed qui tam actions against the drug maker. In September of 2007, the Department of Justice announced a settlement in which Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to pay $515 million to resolve the allegations.

See: Bristol-Myers Squibb to Pay More Than $515 Million to Resolve Allegations of Illegal Drug Marketing and Pricing

During his time at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s Office of Professional Responsibility, Unit Chief John Roberts was the key investigator responsible for uncovering misconduct in many high-profile FBI scandals, including the Ruby Ridge shootings. Then Stephen Kohn, NWC Board Chair and Roberts’ attorney, obtained his permission to speak out in a 60 Minutes segment about illegal retaliation within the FBI.

Roberts was retaliated against immediately after the broadcast by the FBI. ...

Eugene “Gene” Ross uncovered the Amerindo Investment Advisor fraud in 2004 while he was employed by Bear Stearns. After discovery of the fraud, Mr. Ross confronted the principals of Amerindo and immediately reported the fraud to his superiors at Bear Stearns. After his report, he suffered retaliation.

Alberto Vilar and Gary Tanaka, the principals of Amerindo, were convicted in 2008 on multiple counts of investment advisory and securities fraud.

Coleen Rowley brought several of the pre 9/11 lapses to light and testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee on some of the endemic problems facing the FBI and the intelligence community.

In 1990, Ms. Rowley was transferred to the FBI office in Minneapolis where she assumed the duties of Chief Division Counsel, which entailed oversight of the Freedom of Information, Forfeiture, Victim-Witness and Community Outreach Programs.

In May of 2002, Ms. Rowley testified before the ...

William Sanjour, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee, was one of the lead whistleblowers in the Reagan Administration EPA scandals and advocated for public access to environmental information. Supported by whistleblower lawyers at the National Whistleblower Center in addition to his attorneys in Sanjour v. EPA, he challenged the rules restricting EPA workers’ right to speak to environmental community groups. In its decision, the court ordered a nationwide injunction upholding the First Amendment ...

Dr. Tommie “Toni” Savage was a highly respected Army Corps of Engineers Supervisory Contracting Officer in Huntsville, Alabama. She was responsible for reviewing and awarding highly classified, high-profile Army contract programs. She was recognized by Huntsville’s Deputy Commander as the most valuable employee located in the Huntsville contracting office. Although showered with accolades, awards, and promotions, and after repeatedly being congratulated for her integrity and outstanding performance, her career came to a halt in 2006 ...

Americas first nuclear whistleblower, Karen Silkwood discovered numerous health violations, including exposure to high levels of nuclear contamination, at the Kerr-McGee nuclear power plant near Crescent, Oklahoma. In the summer of 1974, she testified to the Atomic Energy Commission about her concerns.

She joined the union and became an activist on behalf of issues of health and safety at the plant as a member of the union’s negotiating team, the first woman to have that position at Kerr-McGee. ...

In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former intelligence contractor for the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), revealed the existence of previously highly classified intelligence-gathering surveillance programs run by the NSA and the U.K.’s equivalent, the GCHQ. While working at the NSA, Snowden began accumulating information on NSA surveillance programs and activities while contracted there from 2009 to 2013.

In May 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong where he brought NSA documents to reporters at The Guardian, ...

Russell D. Tice is a former intelligence analyst and operations officer for the U.S. Air Force, Navy Intelligence’s Naval Security Group (NSG), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Security Agency (NSA). During his nearly 20-year career with various United States government agencies, he conducted many worldwide intelligence missions to include missions related to the Kosovo War, the USS Cole bombing in Yemen, Afghanistan, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In December 2005, Mr. Tice helped spark a ...

Chris Tobe, a former trustee of the Kentucky Employee Retirement System (KERS), blew the whistle on underfunding and pension investment corruption in Kentucky’s pension system in 2010. Tobe claimed that for over a decade KY governors and legislators underfunded KERS, which provides pensions to state employees, and cutting deals with hedge funds to bring investment to KY.

In 2010, Tobe filed his complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission suspecting the overt influence of hedge ...

Madhuri Trivedi is a former General Electric (GE) lead engineer and cybersecurity specialist who blew the whistle on gaps in GE’s healthcare cybersecurity system while working at the GE Healthcare headquarters in Wisconsin. At GE Healthcare, Trivedi noticed that GE’s digital connectivity software, Insite EXC, had cybersecurity defects, was vulnerable to outside hacking, prone to malfunctions, and had hundreds of open complaints from users.

After noticing the issues, Trivedi complained that a malfunctioning system could ...

Linda Tripp, a former White House employee, made disclosures to the Office of Independent Counsel that President Clinton had lied under oath resulting in him being found in contempt of court and losing his law license.

White House whistleblower Linda Tripp successfully challenged the Department of Defense when it illegally released confidential information from her security clearance file. The illegally released file was an act of retaliation for her role in presidential impeachment proceedings. The ...

Vandeveld is Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps.  Since the September 2001 attacks, he has served in Bosnia, Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, and two Joint Meritorious Unit Awards. From May 2007 to September 2007 he served active duty as a prosecutor at the Office of Military Commissions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Lt. Col. ...

Sherron Watkins exposed corporate misconduct in the infamous Enron scandal paving the way for the enactment of the SOX corporate reform law.

Sherron Watkins is the Enron vice president who wrote a letter to chairman Kenneth Lay in the summer of 2001 warning him that the company’s methods of accounting were improper.

In recognition of her whistleblowing, Watkins (along with Coleen Rowley and Cynthia Cooper) was named Time Persons of the Year in 2002.

David P. Weber, a former assistant inspector general for investigations at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a certified fraud examiner, was fired October 2012.  He alleged in a lawsuit that the firing was done in retaliation for disclosing possible computer security breaches, and misconduct at the agency to superiors and members of U.S. Senate and House oversight committees.

His allegations were featured in a Rolling Stone Magazine article “SEC Rocked By Lurid ...

Roger Wensil was America’s first nationally recognized whistleblower at a nuclear weapons facility. Wensil came to prominence after blowing the whistle on illegal drug sales, safety violations, and the systematic quality failures taking place at the DuPont BF Shaw-owned Savannah River Nuclear Weapons Facility that provided weapons-grade plutonium for the U.S. government. After his disclosures, Wensil was removed from his position, exposing the fact that whistleblowers at nuclear plants had no legal protection from ...

Dr. Aaron Westrick, a former research director for America’s largest body armor company, Second Chance Body Armor, blew the whistle on the production and sale of defective vests that were sold to police officers. Whistleblower attorneys supported by NWC represented Dr. Westrick in a False Claims Act qui tam complaint filed against the manufacturers of the vests and the manufacturers of the Zylon fiber within the vests.

After a 14-year legal battle, a conclusion ...

In 1999 Sheila White challenged her employer, Burlington Northern & Santa Fe (BNSF), a giant in the railway transportation industry, by filing charges of discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation in the workplace against BNSF in the Western Tennessee. District Court (White v. Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway). The U.S. Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in favor of Sheila White in the case Burlington Northern & Santa Fe v. White on June 22, 2006.The ...

Dr. Jeffrey Wigand exposed safety problems related to the tobacco industry. In 1995, Dr. Wigand achieved national prominence when he became the tobacco industry’s highest ranking former executive to address public health and smoking issues.

He blew the whistle on the industry’s disregard for the public’s health and safety during an interview with 60 MINUTES, as well as amid a deposition he was compelled to give in an action against the tobacco companies.

A former vice ...

Howard Wilkinson is a former employee of Danske Bank who confidentially raised concerns over an illegal money laundering scheme in 2013. In September of 2018, news reports on the $234 billion scandals revealed the existence of a whistleblower but not the identity. Mr. Wilkinson had wished to remain anonymous, but his name was leaked to an Estonia newspaper.

Mr. Wilkinson is represented by Stephen M. Kohn, a leading whistleblower attorney and founding partner ...

Commander Kimberly Young-McLear, Ph.D. exposed gross misuse of power in how the Coast Guard handled bullying, harassment, and discrimination allegations. An investigation by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General substantiated that she had been retaliated against for her whistleblowing activity.  As a result of her whistleblowing, investigative loopholes for these types of claims by Coast Guard service members and federally employed civilians were closed. In 2023 NWC along with several other ...