Whistleblowers: James Glenn’s battle with Cisco opens new front on cyber security
Summary
In July, for example, Microsoft agreed to pay $16m to settle claims that its subsidiaries in Hungary, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Thailand had given excessive discounts and made improper payments to secure contracts. “I was not allowed to look for a job in that country, and if I left, I was not welcome to come back” Glenn recalls reading Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the underground, the story of a person, disillusioned by oppression and corruption, who withdraws from society several times. He took inspiration from a television series called MacGyver, which told the story of a US government agent who used his intelligence and ordinary items, such paper clips and chewing gum, to solve problems, whatever the odds. One was told: “The company will throw you under a bus and prove that you were a loose cannon and the only person doing it.” Inman said she lost one of her clients who began to suffer from stress and depression after blowing the whistle on healthcare fraud. Some whistleblowers, such as Martin Woods, who exposed suspicious transactions linked to Mexican drug cartels passing through the books of US bank Wachovia, have successfully managed to turn their experiences into a new career path by moving into compliance roles.
