The Insider Yvonne Montgomery Steven Holeman, Esq LEG500 Law, Ethics & Corporate Governance May 22,

2012

Lowell Bergman says You never get whistle-blowers from Fortune 500 companies. Do you agree or disagree, i.e. what are your personal thoughts on this? Personally, I agree with the notion that there are no whistle-blowers from Fortune 500 companies. I believe that most employees are hesitant to disclose illegal or unfavorable information against these large corporations simply because they do not believe that their arguments will be heard or that any actions will be taken against the company because Fortune 500 companies have any unlimited supply of money to protect and defend themselves. In addition, these companies have the power and a reputation that can withstand even some of the most unethical allegations. The Insider exemplified clearly how the law in the United States provides inadequate protection to whistle-blowers and gives corporations little incentive to take corrective action. Employees in a Fortune 500 company are likely to believe they will be fired as a result of reporting any unethical activity and most need their jobs for their livelihood. Most employees also cannot sustain the cost of legal representation needed to go up against large corporations. Although Enron led to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, its scope of protection is limited and only applies to publicly traded companies. The only way we will see more whistleblowers from Fortune 500 companies is if laws are created that guarantee an employee will not be punished or retaliated against in any way for whistle-blowing. Most corporations welcome the disclosing of unethical practices to the ethics hotline and state in their ethics policies that employees will not be retaliated against but I believe that is because the ethical hotline is internal to the organization. Once an employee goes outside the organization, federal and state statutes for whistle-blower protection are pretty much limited to violations of environmental or workplace safety laws. As shown in The Insider, whistle-blowing against a large corporation

presents many risks for the whistle-blower and most employees likely believe they have too much at stake and too little protection to speak out against any wrongdoing. It has been said that Justice has its price. What does this mean to you after watching this movie? The Insider clearly illustrates that justice has its price. After watching this movie, I define justice has its price to mean that an individual will pay a huge price to bring forth justice. The price of justice often has monetary implications; however, those that seek justice often pay a price that cannot be measured by money alone. Jeffrey Wigand lost his job, family, and reputation in order to seek justice against Brown & Williamson. In addition, Wigand could have lost his life and put the safety of his family in jeopardy when he agreed to give the deposition in a separate case against his former employer. Wigand believed the company had a moral obligation to provide the general public and the healthcare community with information regarding nicotine that could have helped in terms of public health and safety and in the net possibly saved lives. Brown & Williamson did not want any information that may impact sales and profits to reach the public and took any steps they saw necessary to ensure information was not disclosed. Wigand received death threats via email, found a bullet in his mailbox, had personal property confiscated, loss his marriage due to his wifes inability to handle the pressure, and was threatened with imprisonment for contempt of court while providing unfavorable testimonies and information against Brown & Williamson. Furthermore, a PR firm was hired by Big Tobacco and a 500-page dossier about his life was published to assassinate his character. In this movie, Wigand experienced some of the most extreme and severe instances of retaliation for whistleblowing which had negatives effects on his life. Retaliation was the price Wigand paid for the justice of public awareness regarding nicotine and addiction. Had Wigand chose to keep quiet

and not probe into the impacts of addiction, his life would have likely been very different. In the end, he sacrificed everything. I believe fear of retaliation is a major contributing factor when an employee is contemplating blowing the whistle against its employer.