Whistleblowing and the American experience: has anything changed?

Abstract

Discusses briefly recent developments in US attitudes towards corporate fraud and the role of lawyers in exposing these scandals. Recounts how the years 1997‐2000 saw US companies losing over $500 billion in market capitalisation due to accounting “errors’, and this was before the Enron, WorldCom and Adelphia affairs. Denies that in fact whistleblowing has been an important part of the exposure of wrongdoing: it was collapse of the companies that showed up their phoney accounting. Concludes that there is little evidence of a change in attitudes towards investigation and prosecution of corruption that would protect or reward potential whistleblowers.

Citation

Rossbacher, H.H. (2004), "Whistleblowing and the American experience: has anything changed?", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 260-261. https://doi.org/10.1108/13590790410809185