The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblower rewards scheme has been running for over 10 years in the US, and billions have been recovered by handsomely paying whistleblowers. Could South Africa adopt a similar rewards scheme for whistleblowers, and could an “Office of the Whistleblower” be established and given the powers to do this?
Andreas Stargard, a seasoned US antitrust lawyer who has practised competition-law litigation for more than 18 years and a co-founding senior member of African law firm Primerio, facilitated a webinar hosted by the Mail & Guardian and sponsored by Constantine Cannon. The webinar was entitled: Amend South Africa’s Legislation to Include Financial Rewards for Whistleblowers.
Stargard began the webinar by introducing the speakers, then called on anti-corruption activist Athol Williams to start proceedings. Williams blew the whistle on his employer Bain & Co and is the author of Deep Collusion, which covers his testimony and its aftermath.
Williams outlined how Bain had damaged the South African Revenue Service and various other public institutions through colluding with former president Jacob Zuma in state capture, and then tried to cover this up. The evidence first started to come to light in the proceedings of the Nugent Commission; Williams blew the whistle in 2019 when he was asked to become involved in the cover-up. He used a cache of files to produce 700 pages of evidence, which he then presented to the Zondo...
Jitesh Patel, an Atlanta, Georgia-based Indian American urologist and his practice Advanced Urology, will pay $14 million to settle a False Claims Act case involving allegations of fraudulent bill...