[HN Gopher] Whistleblower Aid
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Whistleblower Aid
Author : mooreds
Score : 145 points
Date : 2024-01-04 10:20 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (whistlebloweraid.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (whistlebloweraid.org)
| baq wrote:
| first rule of blowing the whistle: before blowing, make sure you
| can't be traced. your life (figuratively, most of the time...)
| isn't worth the consequences of being a known whistleblower.
| ponector wrote:
| That is true. You will be punished by your organization. And by
| other too: they wouldn't hire you if you are known
| whistleblower.
| popcalc wrote:
| How are you going to publish a NYT Best Seller tell-all book
| and be a bookable conference speaker if you don't make your
| name public?
| baq wrote:
| if you blow the whistle at the SEC, you might not need to!
|
| https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-89
| Obscurity4340 wrote:
| This is the way
| gadders wrote:
| Bradley Birkenfield is my favourite:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Birkenfeld
| hulitu wrote:
| He does not look like a whistleblower. He helped american
| government to destroy swiss bank secrecy.
| walterbell wrote:
| https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/herve-falciani...
|
| _> The French police arrested Falciani and seized his MacBook
| Pro and his iPhone. But when he was out of earshot of the Swiss
| prosecutor, on the way to the police station in nearby Menton, he
| told the gendarmes that his computer contained information of
| possible interest to the French state ... The Swiss prosecutor
| demanded that Montgolfier turn over Falciani's laptop, but he
| demurred. "We'll look at the computer," he said. "Then we'll
| decide if we return it." ... While French authorities deliberated
| how to proceed, Falciani spent the night in a holding cell in
| Menton. But the next morning, in a gesture that indicated a shift
| in Falciani's status, his guards surprised him with coffee and
| croissants._
| zthrowaway79875 wrote:
| I am a whistleblower in the UK. The issue is large enough it
| could get into the papers or the dismantling of an organisation.
| It is not a comfortable position to be in and I'm fully cognizant
| of the risks to my future employability. Nonetheless it has to be
| done. I would urge people to speak up even over little things.
|
| Bad things happen when good men do nothing, is succinct and
| appropriate.
| swores wrote:
| I think I speak on behalf of just about everybody except those
| you are blowing the whistle about: good for you, thank you for
| doing the right thing.
| bazil376 wrote:
| Many people say they'd do the right thing even if it's really
| hard and potentially will harm their careers. Very very few
| actual do it. Thank you.
| itsibitzi wrote:
| Disclosure: I'm an engineer working at the Guardian on
| investigations tools.
|
| In your opinion, what can newspapers and their technology teams
| do to improve the process of whistleblowing. Any perspective is
| really interesting!
| zthrowaway79875 wrote:
| I appreciate the work you are doing although there is nothing
| in my experience that I think can assist you. I went through
| legal channels and it is starting to have the desired effect.
| The most important thing you can do as a newspaper is be a
| newspaper. That way I can give my story and shame them
| publicly as a last resort if needed. Your work will be
| invaluable for others I have no doubt!
| loceng wrote:
| I guess Julian Assange did with Wikileaks was the correct
| technology and process - and why the establishment has scared
| everyone away from replicating what he did by his most poor
| treatment.
|
| So, do what Assange did.
| cdibona wrote:
| Assange worked with Rusbridger, Guardian's editor in chief
| at the time, I think. So .... the guardian should go to the
| guardian and get their help! :-)
| loceng wrote:
| So it's a human courage problem, then.
| lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
| It's worth noting that _The Guardian 's_ response to
| Assange's persecution left a lot to be desired[0-2] from
| a whistle-blowing perspective, especially against a
| powerful organization. That's not to say one should avoid
| a journalist publication for telling their story, just
| that it can backfire in its own way if (presumably) that
| publication starts to get heat from law man.
|
| 0: https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2016-02-05/no-fair-
| hearin...
|
| 1: https://www.jonathan-
| cook.net/blog/2018-11-28/guardian-vilif...
|
| 2: https://www.jonathan-
| cook.net/blog/2020-09-26/guardian-assan...
| onionisafruit wrote:
| I don't know what to make of submissions to an organization's
| home page. Is it intended to tell us the organization exists or
| is there something of specific interest on the page at the time
| of submission?
| mooreds wrote:
| Can't speak for everyone, but I submit org homepages because I
| think the organization and its mission are worth the attention
| of the HN community.
| diggan wrote:
| If there is any specific interest, it's usually mentioned in
| the title or in a comment by OP.
|
| Since this doesn't, I'm assuming OP found it interesting, other
| people at /new also saw it as interesting and here we are :)
| sunshine_reggae wrote:
| Could this be a honeypot operation?
| bsenftner wrote:
| I'd want at least one public known past whisleblower to contact
| for assurance the org is not a honeypot. The forces of
| corruption would do exactly this: set up a whistleblower
| support org and then sell their "whistleblowers" back to their
| corrupt overlords.
| loceng wrote:
| I don't know what strategy would work to guarantee any
| organization like this isn't founded by such bad actors, as
| they'd likely be legitimate for many cases, at least while
| gaining public credibility-legitimacy - but then if they are
| toeing a certain line they may then act as protector for the
| bad actors they are aligned with and/or employed by.
|
| Really takes courage to whistleblow.
| madars wrote:
| No idea about this particular organization but the ideas like
| these have been successfully tried:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_and_kill
| cf1241290841 wrote:
| Its worth mentioning that how we protect and deal with
| whistleblowers as a society is a good indicator of how
| dysfunctional it has become.
|
| Working towards corrupt kleptocracies is just not a sensible
| thing to do, you too have to live in the mess you create. Go
| watch at the video of Sadams purge if you feel smart enough to
| profit off such movements.
| bomewish wrote:
| How do they make their money??
| gadders wrote:
| Billionaire donors like Pierre Omidyar:
| https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/20/tech-billionaire-ai...
|
| Given the donors and the list of cases WhistleblowerAid has
| been involved in, I wonder how politically neutral this
| organisation is.
| diggan wrote:
| Does it have to be 100% politically neutral to be useful?
|
| Whistle-blowing in itself is already kind of political, you
| have to strongly disagree (morally, politically, legally or
| otherwise) with what the organization you're in is currently
| doing in order to whistle-blow.
|
| Besides, would be wonderfully ironic if the goal of the
| organization would be to get people inside competitors to the
| "donors" to whistle-blow, but in the end someone whistle-
| blows on the pro-whistle-blowing organization.
| some_random wrote:
| You 100% want to avoid whistle blowing becoming a
| politically aligned action.
| gadders wrote:
| I think it could undermine their credibility. They then
| begin to look like another bunch of party hacks, of which
| we have too many already (on whatever side).
| cycomanic wrote:
| I don't understand your point. The very article you cite
| states that Haugen (the Facebook whistle-blower) was praised
| by politicians from both sides.
|
| On top of that whistleblowing is inherently political because
| it implies an individual reporting on a (typically) much
| larger and powerful organisation, for moral, ethical or legal
| reasons.
|
| When I read statements like yours I always wonder about the
| motivation. What are you trying to achieve? Is this part of a
| covert campaign to discredit some inconvenient organisation?
| some_random wrote:
| Per another comment, they provide legal representation and take
| 60% of the payout
| eduction wrote:
| Another good organization in this space is Signals Network, which
| has experience working with whistleblowers outside the US.
|
| https://thesignalsnetwork.org/
| anonwhistler wrote:
| @dang can you show this thanks
|
| I am a whistleblower and Whistle Blower Aid is my legal
| representation.
|
| The case has been going on over 3 years now. The legal process is
| very slow. The reason I approached them is because an
| investigative reporter I have been working with recommended them.
|
| WBA takes on cases that have social impact or financial payout.
| Payouts to whistle blowers come from the SEC, IRS, Treasury, and
| a few other agencies. Whistleblowers can get very large payouts -
| tens of millions of dollars - if the eventual penalty is high.
| WBA takes 60% of any payout.
|
| My case has the potential for very high payout, which is mostly
| why I blew the whistle. The CEO is a slimy guy and it wouldn't
| surprise me if he tried to use violence against my family, that
| is how unpredictable he is.
|
| First you file the disclosure. Then the government has to
| actually be interested. It took a year from filing the disclosure
| to getting contacted by a government agent. Then it took 4 more
| months to get an in person meeting arranged. People I have worked
| with in the past have contacted me saying they have been
| subpoenaed and they don't know I blew the whistle, so I know the
| government is making a case.
|
| Keep in mind a tiny percentage of whistle blowers ever get a
| payout. The targets of these investigations have a lot of money
| and legal power. The government can only go after so many
| targets. They like ones that have big impact - money and or
| societal impact. They like going after public figures. You have
| to lobby the government through various forms of influence to get
| them to act.
| anonwhistler wrote:
| Sorry, WBA takes 40% of the payout not 60%
| hulitu wrote:
| > The targets of these investigations have a lot of money and
| legal power.
|
| They have also a lot of illegal power. See NSA vs Snowden.
|
| > The government can only go after so many targets.
|
| The government is mostly corrupt/ indifferent.
| Alifatisk wrote:
| If you are going to blow the whistle, please use securedrop.org
| over Tor network.
| hulitu wrote:
| You need to use adfitional methods. Tor was an NSA project.
| PoignardAzur wrote:
| That's a hell of a claim to drop without sources.
| yboris wrote:
| I've felt for 20 years now that a nice _system design_ would be
| to, by law, give 10% of the fine levied against a wrong-doing
| company to the whistleblower. This way there 's always a
| financial incentive to whistle-blow, especially when the
| wrongdoing is egregious.
| ForkMeOnTinder wrote:
| The SEC does this.
|
| https://www.sec.gov/whistleblower/frequently-asked-questions
|
| > The Whistleblower Program was created by Congress to provide
| monetary incentives for individuals to come forward and report
| possible violations of the federal securities laws to the SEC.
| Under the program, eligible whistleblowers are entitled to an
| award between 10 and 30% of the monetary sanctions collected in
| actions brought by the SEC and related actions brought by
| certain other regulatory and law enforcement authorities.
| baby-yoda wrote:
| The Biogen whistleblower got $266 million (roughly 30%).
|
| https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/largest-ever-266-4-...
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(page generated 2024-01-04 23:01 UTC)