How whistle-blowers shape history

In an effort to curb fraud, companies have instituted techniques such as third-party administration of ethics hotlines to assist in fraud detection. Recent research reveals several counterintuitive aspects of whistleblowing, showing that a company's fraud reporting programs can be implemented in a way that actually decreases employees' willingness to report fraud. This article explores actions organizations can take to avoid inadvertently discouraging fraud reporting and instead promote whistleblowing.

In this Washington Post op-ed, Kelly Richmond Pope reflects on her experience as a Girl Scout and how her experience of selling cookies at an early age taught her valuable lessons about business ethics and fraud.

If you ask people whether they think stealing is wrong, most of them would answer yes. And yet, in 2013, organizations all over the world lost an estimated total of $3.7 trillion to fraud. Kelly Richmond Pope explains how the fraud triangle, developed by criminologist Donald Cressey, can help us understand how seemingly good people can make unethical decisions in their daily lives.

In September 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Los Angeles City Attorney and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency fined Wells Fargo $185 million alleging that more than 2 million bank accounts or credit cards were opened or applied for without customer’s knowledge or permission between May 2011 and July 2015. Roughly 5,300 employees were terminated in relation to the allegations including many of the whistle-blowers who attempted to alert the bank. On this episode, co-host Kelly Pope interviews a Wells Fargo branch manager that was pressured to engage in the fraud but decided to whistle-blow.

All the Queen's Horses is an award-winning documentary that chronicles that largest municipal fraud in United States history. Kelly Richmond Pope cleverly shows how a trusted city comptroller embezzled over $53 million from a small community. Additionally, the film explores the bravery of the whistle-blower who discovered the fraud.