Who Blows the Whistle? What Motivates Them May Surprise You
Contrary to a common misconception, often times, whistleblowers have no financial motive when they seek legal advice or counsel relating to questions involving company wrongdoing or corporate fraud. Rather, both experience and studies demonstrate that whistleblowers are incentivized by more altruistic factors such as religion, morals, and the simple desire to right a wrong.
Kenney McCafferty often sees this type of motive with its own clients. In a recent case, for example, which brought in a $26 million settlement with CareSource, Robin Herzog of West Carrollton, Ohio, one of the two nurse Relators, said she didn’t know until after she quit her job that people who reported fraud could be financially compensated; her motivation for seeking legal counsel, she said, was fear of losing her nursing license and feeling bad for the children who were not getting the services. This is a very common scenario — the whistleblower does not find out until after she seeks legal counsel that a financial reward may be available for filing a claim against the corporation.
Moreover, a recent CNBC study reported that whistleblowers generally share the similar characteristic of being religious, or having a deep faith. Whistleblowers often report that their religion or faith carried them through the process.
Whistleblowers can be generally categorized into several groups: an employee (current or former); a competitor; or an industry expert. In the case of an employee, this is usually someone who has attempted to bring the complaint about the fraud to the attention of management, to no avail. When the fraud is not remedied internally, the whistleblower typically seeks outside counsel, and then realizes that there are financial incentives available as a reward for blowing the whistle.
Tags: CareSource, incentives, nurse, relator, whistleblower
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 at 9:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
