Whistleblowers

1. Whistleblowers Cynthia Cooper was the whistleblower who exposed massive accounting fraud at WorldCom in 2002. A native of Clinton, Mississippi, Cooper worked as the Vice President of Internal Audit at WorldCom. After conducting a thorough investigation in secret, she informed WorldCom's board that the company had covered up $3.8 billion in losses through phony bookkeeping. At the time, this was the largest incident of accounting fraud in U.S. history.

2. Cooper previously worked for the Atlanta offices of public accounting firms PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte & Touche. She received an undergraduate degree in accounting from Mississippi State University and a Masters of Accountancy from the University of Alabama. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Georgia, Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). • Cooper was named as one of three "People of the Year" by Time magazine in 2002.

3. Allen S. Cutler was a Canadiancivil servant who became notable for his role in the sponsorship scandal: by acting as the whistleblower, Cutler both triggered the scandal and lost his job. He had been working for the Ministry of Public Works and Government Services. • On November 23, 2005, the Conservative Party of Canada announced Mr. Cutler would be its candidate in the riding of Ottawa South in the upcoming federal election. He does not live in the riding, though. [1] He failed to defeat incumbent MP David McGuinty.

4. Cutler was born in Ottawa, is married and has two children. He has a degree in Economics from Carleton University. He is also a director of the Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform. • Although his good deed was praised, the Ottawa Citizen defined Cutler as "one-note-pony". • Interestingly, Cutler claimed he had never had any intention of running for Parliament. However, Cutler did a number of high-profile interviews before the campaign had begun.

5. Shanmughan Manjunath (1978-2005) was an engineer for the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) who was murdered for opposing corruption in the erstwhile government firm's petrol pumps. • Manjunath was born in Kolar, India, near Bangalore. He earned his engineering degree from Sri Jayachamarajendra College Of Engineering, Mysore, and an MBA from IIM, Lucknow. • While working for the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in Lucknow, he had ordered two petrol pumps at Lakhimpur Kheri sealed for selling adulterated fuel for three months. When the pump started operating again a month later, Manjunath decided to conduct a surprise raid around November 19, 2005.

6. Having not heard from his son for three days, at around 9 that night, his father, M Shanmughan, had sent an SMS: ‘‘How are you?’’. • There was no reply, because that very evening, during his inspection, Manjunath had been abducted, badly beaten up and eventually shot dead. His body, riddled with at least six bullets, was found in the backseat of his own car, which was being driven by two employees of the petrol pump. Both were arrested and the main accused, pump-owner Monu Mittal, was held on November 23 along with four others.

8. Following the murder, there was immense media spotlight on the case. S. Manjunath's batchmates from IIM Lucknow (where he was affectionately called machan[1]) also kept the story alive. Indian Oil Corporation paid Rs. 26 lakhs compensation to the family. The matter of adulteration in diesel was taken up by the Energy Coordination Committee chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. One of the policy remedies being considered is to minimize the subsidy in the price of kerosene (used as cooking fuel by the weaker classes), and to explore alternate mechanisms for implementing the subsidy. Subsequently, several tanker trucks, laden with thousands of liters of kerosene, were seized en route to a district neighbouring Lakhimpur Kheri [2]. • Investigations into the murder are going on. • A pan IIM initiative, [The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust]was registered early February. With immediate objectives of fighting the case, they have a broader agenda of improving governance in Indian public life

9. One of the policy remedies being considered is to minimize the subsidy in the price of kerosene (used as cooking fuel by the weaker classes), and to explore alternate mechanisms for implementing the subsidy. Subsequently, several tanker trucks, laden with thousands of liters of kerosene, were seized en route to a district neighboring Lakhimpur Kheri [2]. • Investigations into the murder are going on. • A pan IIM initiative, [The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust] was registered early February. With immediate objectives of fighting the case, they have a broader agenda of improving governance in Indian public life.

11. In a handwritten letter to his friend, the hero of this story had written "My conscience is my biggest virtue, my wealthiest treasure and my best guide or friend. I always do what my conscience tells or compels me to do. I want to keep this candle of humanity ever glowing in my heart.'' The hero's story was a shocking one with a sob ending.

13. He could have continued doing his job as a deputy general manager in the Centre’s National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and shut his eyes to the variegated ways in which a prestigious project - Instead Dubey opted to do the right thing by alerting the PMO to these developments because he believed the project was of “unparalleled importance to the nation”. He paid with his life for having done so”  - Indian Express