A few months ago, a former employee of Deutsche Bank hit the jackpot. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission awarded this publicly unnamed whistleblower almost $200 million for supplying “specific, credible, and timely original information” that aided the agency in its investigation into the illegal rigging of inter-bank interest rates. This was the largest whistleblower payment in history.
The former bank employee now joins a select group of whistleblowers who not only spoke out and were heard by the authorities, but also were rewarded handsomely for their effort. The system worked this time, but far more often those who attempt to blow the whistle are ignored, silenced, and punished.
West Point graduate and Gulf War veteran John Kopchinski is also a member of this group. Although he ultimately received $51.5 million for informing authorities about illegal sales practices at Pfizer, Kopchinski’s road to fortune was anything but easy.
Working as a sales rep at the pharmaceutical behemoth, he had become increasingly uneasy about how Pfizer pushed him to get doctors to prescribe the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug Bextra for unapproved uses. To gain more profit from this drug, the company allegedly also incentivized its sales team to persuade doctors to increase the dosage—up to eight times the approved standard. Kopchinski had tried to alert his superiors about these practices, but was frustrated that the “ethical line kept moving.” He even lost his...
New Delhi / Atlanta: Indian-origin doctor Dr. Jitendra Patel, along with his Atlanta-based clinic Advanced Urology, has agreed to a settlement of approximately 161 crore (USD 14 million) to resolv...