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Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Due
Gbemisola Salako
Dr. Oris Guillaume
LEG 500 – Spring/ 2015
April 21, 2015

Question # 1- Describe the key characteristics of a whistleblower, and briefly summarize one (1) researched instance of whistleblowing in one (1) publicly traded company within the last 12 months. Include the details of the issue that the whistleblower reported and the effect of the whistleblower’s actions on both the whistleblower himself and the company.
Whistleblowing can be described as an instance whereby an employee reports suspected wrongdoing such as corruption, mismanagement or corruption at work. It is referred to as making a disclosure in the interest of the public which can occur in a private enterprise or government agency (“Whistleblowing,” 2015).
A whistleblower is an individual or employee who reports wrongdoing within an organization. This person draws attention to genuine abuses of power in government and businesses by decision makers. A whistleblower acts in accordance with perceived ethical or legal mandate (Halbert, Ingulli, & Frey, 2015).
The key characteristic of a whistleblower is the willingness to sacrifice both professionally and personally to expose wrongdoing such as wastefulness, fraudulent practices and corruption in an organization. Persistence and the ability to assume personal risk are also characteristics of a whistleblower (Heumann, Friedes, Cassak, Wright & Joshi 2013).
JPMorgan Chase & Co. was charged with defrauding the government into insuring flawed home loans which was reported by Keith Edwards (whistleblower). The whistleblower provided tips that led to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s agreement to pay $614 million when the company admitted that it had submitted thousands of mortgages for insurance that did not qualify for government guarantees by the Federal Housing Administration and the

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