The Most Famous Whistleblower Cases In History

What is a whistleblower?

A whistleblower is an individual who brings to light evidence of wrongdoing within a company or organization. The type of wrongdoing will depend on the activity of the organization, but it can include the following:

• Corporate fraud such as insider trading, accounting irregularities, or the falsification of financial statements.
• Government misconduct by government officials which can include the abuse of power, corruption, or violations of civil liberties.
• Workplace discrimination and harassment including sexual harassment, racial discrimination, or retaliation against employees who speak out against illegal or unethical practices.
• Environmental violations such as illegal dumping of toxic waste or other forms of pollution.
• Public health and safety violations such as the sale of contaminated food or drugs, or the use of faulty equipment that could cause harm.

In exposing wrongdoing, whistleblowers disclose company information in the form of documents, emails, videos, etc. to authorities, regulators, the media, or the general public.

Although their actions are usually in the interest of the public good or to prevent harm to others, whistleblowers can often face retaliation, reputational damage, imprisonment, and other negative consequences for speaking out.

These are just some of the reasons why many whistleblowers wish to remain anonymous and why many countries have laws and protections in place to encourage and safeguard whistleblowers. But until they blow that whistle, their fate is never quite known.

Let's take a look at the most famous examples of whistleblowers, what misconduct or illegal activity they exposed, the impact it had, and what happened to the whistleblower behind it.

The most famous whistleblower examples

There have been several high-profile whistleblowers throughout history. These individuals have risked their careers, reputations, and even their personal safety to bring attention to wrongdoing and help promote accountability and transparency.

Here are some of the most famous whistleblower examples from the past few decades.

Edward Snowden

Top of our list of famous whistleblowers is none other than Edward Snowden. The former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor leaked classified information in 2013.

During his employment, Snowden realized that NSA surveillance programs were secretly collecting phone records and internet activity of millions of innocent people around the world, including US citizens and EU political leaders. Seeing this as a gross violation of individual privacy and civil liberties, Snowden believed that the public had a right to know.

He knew that by leaking this information, his freedom (and perhaps his life) would be in jeopardy. Snowden dropped everything and fled to Hong Kong where he met with Ewen MacAskill and Glenn Greenwald, journalists from The Guardian newspaper, and documentary filmmaker, Laura Poitras.

Once he told them his story and they had the necessary evidence, Snowden continued to Russia where he was given temporary asylum before finally being granted Russian citizenship in 2022. The US charged him with espionage and theft of government property, and if convicted, he faced the possibility of life in prison.

Snowden's revelations shook the world and put considerable strain on US-EU relations. Government surveillance, privacy, and national security became the topic of a global debate.

But it also made Snowden a controversial figure.

Some view him as a hero for exposing government misconduct. In fact, in 2020, US courts ruled that the NSA surveillance exposed by Snowden was illegal. But others see him as a traitor who endangered national security. Whatever your opinion, Edward Snowden is arguably the world's most famous whistleblower to date.

“John Doe”

The next famous whistleblower on our list is famous only by action, not by name. The anonymous whistleblower, known only by their chosen pseudonym “John Doe”, was responsible for the Panama Papers leak in 2016.

The name “Panama Papers” refers to 11.5 million documents leaked to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung from a law firm called Mossack Fonseca. The Panamanian firm specialized in creating offshore shell companies for thousands of clients around the world.

But what the leaked documents revealed was how the firm was helping those very wealthy clients avoid taxes and conceal their assets.

The list of global clients included:

• Heads of state and former heads of states
• Politicians and government officials
• Banking executives and business people
• FIFA and UEFA committee members
• Football team owners and executives
• Sports personalities from the worlds of football, tennis, golf, major league baseball, motorsports, and chess
• Media personalities from all across the TV, film, and music scenes
• Criminals (organized crime)

The Panama Paper leak had far-reaching global consequences. It led to multiple investigations which exposed the extent of tax avoidance and financial corruption and led to reforms in many countries.

John Doe released a statement through Süddeutsche Zeitung on May 5, 2016, explaining their reasons for leaking the documents.

The manifesto-style statement entitled “The Revolution Will Be Digitized,” declared that it was the growing global income inequality and corruption that drove them to blow the whistle. They saw that shell companies were responsible for so many crimes that went far beyond mere tax evasion.

“I decided to expose Mossack Fonseca because I thought its founders, employees and clients should have to answer for their roles in these crimes...”

John Doe is perhaps the only famous whistleblower whose identity has never been publicly revealed. Not even the journalists who broke the story know who they are. Yet even now, years after the leak, John Doe still fears for their life.

Chelsea Manning

Chelsea Manning is a former US Army intelligence analyst who leaked thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents and videos to WikiLeaks in 2010. The details were subsequently published by The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel and sparked a global debate about US military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There was one particular piece of video footage dubbed “Collateral Murder” that showed a US military helicopter crew shooting at Iraqi civilians, after allegedly mistaking them for insurgents.

According to the information leaked by Manning, this was just one of many incidents that resulted in more than 15,000 unreported civilian deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Also, amongst the 700,000 leaked documents was evidence that the US military had failed to investigate detainee abuse and torture.

All of it made for pretty grim reading.

But in 2013, Manning was arrested and charged with espionage and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Her sentence was later commuted by President Barack Obama and she was released in 2017, after serving seven years in prison.

Just like Snowden, Manning is seen as both hero and a villain. By some, this famous whistleblower is regarded as exposing war crimes and crimes against humanity by the government. Others view her actions as those of a traitor who endangered national security.

Her incarceration also sparked a global debate about the balance between government secrecy and transparency, and the rights of whistleblowers.

Dr. Jeffrey Wigand

Dr. Jeffrey Wigand is a former tobacco industry executive who blew the whistle on the whole tobacco industry. The former Vice President for Research and Development for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, rose to his status as a famous whistleblower in February of 1996 when he appeared on the CBS news program "60 Minutes".

On the show, Wigand revealed that the tobacco industry explicitly knew of the health risks associated with smoking and was actively trying to conceal this information from the public. He also disclosed that they used additives to increase the addictiveness of cigarettes.

Brown & Williamson tried to discredit and ruin Wigand's credibility with a relentless smear campaign but the attack backfired as the allegations against him were either unfounded or trivial.

This didn't stop Brown & Williamson and they ended up filing a lawsuit against Wigand. But the suit was later dismissed in 1997 as part of the landmark settlement of $368 billion between the Attorneys General of 40 states and the tobacco industry.

Wigand's actions brought him a great deal of misery, including harassment, legal threats, and the loss of his job and livelihood. But he has also been widely praised for exposing the tobacco industry's practices and contributing to greater public awareness of the dangers of smoking.

Karen Silkwood

Karen Silkwood is one of the more tragic whistleblower examples on our list. Silkwood was a nuclear technician and labor union activist who blew the whistle on her employer, the Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corp., for health and safety violations. On her way to meet with a journalist, Silkwood was killed in a car accident but the circumstances were more than suspicious.

So what happened?

During her work at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site in Oklahoma, Silkwood had become increasingly concerned about safety violations and other issues at the plant, including the exposure of workers to dangerous levels of radiation.

She voiced her concerns to her union, the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW). She agreed to work undercover to gather company files to back up her allegations.

But it would appear that someone knew what she was up to. Silkwood was contaminated with plutonium on three consecutive days which she believed was an intimidation tactic by Kerr-McGee.

But Silkwood wasn't about to give up. She had gathered the necessary evidence and arranged to meet with a union representative and a New York Times reporter on the evening of November 13th, 1974. But she never arrived.

Silkwood was involved in a one-car accident, dying instantly at the scene.

An autopsy report showed that she had alcohol and sedatives in her bloodstream. At the time, the highway patrol had ruled that Silkwood had likely fallen asleep at the wheel. But when it was noticed that the papers that had been strewn about and collected from the scene of the accident were suddenly missing, the OCAW hired an investigator.

The investigator discovered Silkwood's car had a fresh dent in the rear bumper and there were skid marks on the road inconsistent with the contour of the highway. The evidence suggested that she had been run off the road by an unknown vehicle.

The theory was discredited and it was ruled: no foul play. But there was and still is much speculation.

Karen Silkwood became a posthumous poster woman for antinuclear rallies. Her death sparked a major investigation into a possible cover-up of a nuclear black market involving Kerr-McGee, the FBI, the CIA, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. You can read about the entire saga of this famous whistleblower in the 12-page Rolling Stones article, published two years after Silkwood's death.

Mark Felt aka “Deep Throat”

The 70s seems to have been an important era producing many of our famous whistleblowers. In 1972, a secret informant, given the pseudonym “Deep Throat”, provided information to two reporters for The Washington Post. When that information was finally made public, the information would result in the first-ever resignation of a US president.

Deep Throat provided key details about the involvement of President Richard Nixon and his administration in a major cover-up of what came to be known as “the Watergate scandal”.

The scandal involved a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972, which was found to have been orchestrated by Nixon's re-election campaign committee.

The break-in and subsequent cover-up of the administration's involvement led to Nixon's resignation in 1974, and 48 convictions which included several of Nixon's top aides.

For more than 30 years, the identity of Deep Throat was a mystery, often being heralded as “the most famous anonymous person in US history”. But in 2005, in an interview with Vanity Fair, Mark Felt finally revealed that he was the famous whistleblower who brought down the president.

Felt's actions of leaking information to the press were met with varied responses. His family and many others believe he was an American hero, others felt that he had betrayed his oath to keep this nation's secrets, and some believe he did it only to further his own career.

Whatever the view, Felt's whistleblowing helped expose government corruption at the highest levels. The Watergate scandal had huge political and cultural implications, including widespread loss of trust in the government and a renewed emphasis on the importance of investigative journalism and government accountability.

Sherron Watkins

Last but by no means least on our list of famous whistleblowers is Sherron Watkins, the former Enron executive who exposed accounting fraud and financial misconduct at the American energy company. Watkins was the Vice President of Corporate Development at Enron when she became aware of accounting irregularities and potential financial fraud.

In August 2001, Watkins put an anonymous memo in the Enron communications box voicing her concern that the company was in danger of imploding “in a wave of accounting scandals”.

After revealing to HR that she was the author of the memo, she was invited to meet with CEO Kenneth Lay which she did, armed with a 6-page document detailing the problematic accounting practices. Instead of taking her seriously, she was demoted and ignored.

But that wave of accounting scandals was just about to hit. Financial analysts were already looking into Enron's financial statements and starting to suspect foul play.

It wasn't long before Enron's stock was in freefall causing shareholders to file a $40 billion lawsuit, and in December 2001, Enron filed for bankruptcy. Thousands of employees' jobs were eradicated along with their health insurance, and $74 billion in shareholder funds and pensions.

During investigations by the FBI and US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Watkins' warning memo was discovered and she became one of the key witnesses testifying before Congress about the Enron scandal.

When the media picked up the story of the memo, Watkins suddenly joined the ranks of famous whistleblowers. Her help with the criminal investigations was not only instrumental in bringing those responsible to justice but led to massive changes within the financial system and saw the introduction of new regulations and compliance measures.

Even though Watkins was named Time magazine's “Person of the Year” in 2002, she still faced threats and harassment for her actions. She has spoken out about how being publicly known as a whistleblower damaged her career prospects and destroyed many of her personal relationships. For some, she was disloyal to the company, for others, her actions weren't enough— feeling she should have gone straight to the governing bodies with her discoveries instead.

Had Watkins remained anonymous as the memo writer she might not have suffered

But whatever way you look at it, Watkins' actions helped investigations that led to multiple convictions, including CEO Kenneth Lay, and forever changed how corporations do business.

What do these whistleblower examples teach us?

By exploring these whistleblower examples, we can gain a greater appreciation for the importance of speaking the truth in the face of power even in the face of significant personal risk and professional suicide.

Whistleblowers often face backlash and criticism, even though their actions have exposed some of the most significant cases of misconduct in government and corporate history.

Hoody is proud to be one of the only privacy tools that can offer whistleblowers true anonymity online. Using the Hoody app, whistleblowers can continue to have a positive impact on our society and our world and avoid the negative consequences that can be, as these whistleblower examples prove, life-changing or even fatal.

Many of these famous whistleblower stories have caught the eye of Hollywood. To go deeper, check out our article Whistleblower Movies Based on Real Life.