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BofA Has To Pay Fired Whistleblower $930,000

from the but-the-us-gov't-will-still-try-to-put-people-in-jail dept

Thu, Sep 15th 2011 7:27pm — Mike Masnick

The US Department of Labor has told Bank of America to reinstate a guy they fired for blowing the whistle on fraud at Countrywide, and pay him $930,000 for his troubles. Apparently, BofA fired the guy soon after taking over Countrywide and discovered that this (unnamed) employee was trying to report on the fact that others, who had reported fraud at Countrywide, had been the victims of corporate retaliation.

Of course, Bank of America has plenty of cash on hand, in part because the US government (the one now ordering it to pay this worker less than a million dollars) has bailed the bank out to the tune of over $20 billion.

And while we're on the subject of the US government punishing a company for retaliating against whistleblowers, we should probably mention that the very same federal government has been going out of its way lately to try to imprison government whistleblowers. Apparently, it's okay when the federal government does it, but not when anyone else does it.

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Filed Under: free speech, whistleblowing
Companies: bank of america

14 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 15 Sep 2011 @ 7:58pm

Do as I say, not as I do.
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- monkyyy, 15 Sep 2011 @ 8:30pm
  
  Re:
  right to the heart of the problem
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 15 Sep 2011 @ 8:14pm

Sigh.
I want to be worked up about the injustice in the system.
I want to be worked up about whistleblowers needing protection for the greater good.

But this is just going to be another one of those cases no one cares about. The evil whistleblower will be the cause of all of their problems, and he will be demonized.

All of the spin is always about the whistleblower and how they got the information, never any look at the actual information.

Once upon a time when you had a whistleblower, Pentagon Papers or DeepThroat, they bothered to look into the information and then dug for more. Now they just try to get everyone to feel bad for the poor company this person set up to take the fall.

When you have a whistleblower, and they try to silence them there should be all kinds of investigations launched. I don't care if its the Whitehouse or BOFA, the fact they are doing more than just denial pretty much should confirm what the whistleblower is saying is true and it is a symptom of much worse things being done secretly.
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- monkyyy, 15 Sep 2011 @ 8:33pm
  
  Re:
  tv is getting old, and well they get bored of the same old stuff so they just put in zero effort to get high ratings
  
  internet is where the new brighteyed reporters are
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Sep 2011 @ 9:50pm

Whistleblowers and Retaliators
Any time there is no adequate whistleblower protection scheme set up and actually working properly, you can be sure there will be criminal activity going on, done by persons at the top of the organization. Any large pot of money will attract criminals, like bears to honey.

Notice how there have been numerous whistleblowers retaliated against. Only one has been compensated. No attention has been paid to the fraud which set off the whistleblowing. No corporate retaliators have been punished. The government has a long way to go, if they want to do a proper job of cleaning up BofA. What are the chances that they will actually get the job done?

The culture of scheming in the US finance industry has gravely damaged the US economy. It will continue to do so.
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abc gum, 16 Sep 2011 @ 4:35am

Any guess as to how long this will drag out?
This person will probably never see a dime.
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Clay (profile), 16 Sep 2011 @ 6:57am

Hey US Govt., you're doing it wrong
Wake me up when the people responsible for the fraud are put in federal "PMITA" PRISON. Paying out fines is just part of doing business to these ****s.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Sep 2011 @ 7:19am

I believe the employee was a she judging by the following from the article:

in no way related to the complaints and allegations she made

So they're not going to be paying him anything.
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James, 16 Sep 2011 @ 7:48am

Govt Whistleblowers
In the government, whistleblowing on fraud, waste or abuse is encouraged, and protected by the IG (Inspector General). Leaking classified information is not considered whistleblowing.
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Sep 2011 @ 9:52am
  
  Re: Govt Whistleblowers
  Unfortunately, all records of fraud, waste and abuse are classified.
  
  Fix up the over-classification problem, before asking for more respect towards state secrets.
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  - James, 16 Sep 2011 @ 12:14pm
    
    Re: Re: Govt Whistleblowers
    Not defending the over-classification, that's an issue we are working on, but two wrongs don't make a right. Most classified information is classified for a very good reason. The more people that know of a secret reduce the chances of the secret being kept.
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ibaconi (profile), 16 Sep 2011 @ 8:22am

Government Whistle Blowers??
Did someone try to blow the whistle on Obuma? Next thing you know they'll be tryin' to pass him off as bein' American!
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- The Devil's Coachman (profile), 18 Sep 2011 @ 7:53am
  
  Re: Government Whistle Blowers??
  I think you've found your calling - troll. Please proceed with additional douche-baggery.
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The Devil's Coachman (profile), 18 Sep 2011 @ 7:59am

Bank of America blows ponies!
That's when they're not doing face-plants in donkey bungholes. Why anyone would do business with those turds is beyond comprehension!
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