Blew the whistle on my employer

waterjug

Senior member
Jan 21, 2012
930
0
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I had posted about some of the shady things my employer was doing, in this thread and this thread.

So after I was reinstated a friend from the main office gave me a call and said they overheard two higher-ups talking about me, trying to get 'dirt' on me. One of them then mentioned that I had filed a freedom of information request, and they both sounded worried at this. Anyhoo, I get my request filled, and it's a goldmine. Coverups of complaints, failure to inform me (and other employees) about hazards/dangerous situations that had developed, and the fact that even though they left me on suspension for 4 months (see first thread) I had actually been cleared within 3 weeks.

So while this is going on, I'm starting to notice shady things happening with our billing; we're paid by the government, and we submit billing requests without actual proof that we did anything we can bill for. The premise is that since they can come in and audit us at any point, no one would be stupid enough to fabricate billing requests without having services rendered to back it up. Oh, except my company did, and they got caught. Every single billing request they've done for the past 5 years is getting pulled up right now.

Anyway, before this gets too long, I noticed that several administrators in our company didn't have the degrees/licensure/experience to be in the positions they were as per our state contract. These are the same people that are actually ordering the billing fraud to occur, and then firing the employees that complied, when the company got caught. A VP then went out to some of our locations and took individual employees out and threatened/pressured them into not cooperating with the state investigation. I had had enough, so I wrote a letter to my state AG, and several over-sight boards for my industry. I spoke on the lack of qualifications, the fraud, the fact that they're shorting paychecks, oh and this gem: Each week I have my retirement contribution set, and it comes out of my gross pay (obviously), and is then deposited into my retirement account. Except it wasn't making it into my account. I checked it one day and it had been months since my company made a deposit. They're apparently siphoning money out of checks and then holding the cash. When I threatened legal action they deposited the money, but I had missed out on the interest in the 401K. OH, and then three weeks later they started doing it again.

I thought I would be intimidated or scared by doing it, but honestly I feel good. People were being hurt by this company, no one was doing anything, and the company refused to reform. I felt if I didn't do anything I'd be complicit in the thieving/abuse/negligence that they were perpetrating. Oh, and I did it anonymously, I set up an email account that I can be contacted at, but is not actually connected to my true identity, that way I'm sheltered some from blowback.


TL;DR

1. Work for company that is abusive towards staff.
2. Company is also massively corrupt, defrauding state, and employees
3. Sent letter to state AG, oversight boards
4. Feels good man.
 

Uppsala9496

Diamond Member
Nov 2, 2001
5,272
19
81
Do yourself a favor and contact a labor attorney. This way you will know what kind of documents to keep for yourself. You are now a protected class since you are a whistleblower, so anything detrimental to you that happens going forward may be cause for an EEOC claim.

Oh and the 401K thing......yea, that is a breach of fiduciary duty from the company and the plan administrator. Contact an attorney about that right away. That is a big no-no.
 

Vdubchaos

Lifer
Nov 11, 2009
10,408
10
0
Good for you, it takes balls to stand up for this shit.

I've seen this sort of thing in just about every company I ever worked for (about a dozen).

All kinds of shady practices/accounting and BS beyond most people's imaginations.

I love when end of quarters roll in or end of month......how accounting is done.

And now you see why I don't believe any of those #s on wall street. I've seen my share of companies report BS #s....
 

Sheep221

Golden Member
Oct 28, 2012
1,843
27
81
I left my last job also, because of retarded corporate practices, frauds, stealing from customers, workplace abuse, no following of safety, very low salaries, brainwashing, tax fleeing and more. They also owed me some money but I didn't process it to the court because I would be able to bring the company down because I knew everything about them and their shade practices, but I didn't because many people they were hiring were in so bad financial status that destroying the company and taking away their jobs was not worth for exchange of me being some sort of hero because they owed me few bucks and I just left the company and never shown there again and the day I left was best day in my recent years, I felt so good. Dude don't fight with them or resolve that crap, just leave the company, get another job and change your life, it's always a better way.
 

Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,688
126
Do yourself a favor and contact a labor attorney. This way you will know what kind of documents to keep for yourself. You are now a protected class since you are a whistleblower, so anything detrimental to you that happens going forward may be cause for an EEOC claim.

Oh and the 401K thing......yea, that is a breach of fiduciary duty from the company and the plan administrator. Contact an attorney about that right away. That is a big no-no.

That's a great, great point. :thumbsup:
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
Do yourself a favor and contact a labor attorney. This way you will know what kind of documents to keep for yourself. You are now a protected class since you are a whistleblower, so anything detrimental to you that happens going forward may be cause for an EEOC claim.

Oh and the 401K thing......yea, that is a breach of fiduciary duty from the company and the plan administrator. Contact an attorney about that right away. That is a big no-no.

For the love of god, THIS. ALL OF IT.

And stop posting about it here until you get an attorney and become fully aware of the legal scope of what you are doing and what needs to be done to protect you in this process. By posting about it, if there's even one tidbit wrong on your account of the situation, you all of a sudden open yourself up at the very least to a massive libel action by the company and the tables would be turned.

Otherwise, lawyer up, pass go, collect $200, buy Boardwalk and Park Place, toss a couple hotels up on it and retire in style.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,256
406
126
Ya got guts to stand up to that, props man. Pretty intense shit, I hope it all works out for you.
 

Puppies04

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2011
5,909
17
76
Well done, hope it all works out. Keep us informed when you can but please don't put yourself in any bad situations by talking about stuff that shouldn't be mentioned.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,920
2,161
126
Thanks for sharing, but posting this stuff in public may be bad if they start investigating you.
 

Miramonti

Lifer
Aug 26, 2000
28,653
100
106
Way to go, man. That's some big league stuff. I agree with the above, know what it takes to cya, and then cya. And watch your back...sounds like some of these people have gone pretty low and one never knows how low they're willing to go to take care of their interests first.
 

Platypus

Lifer
Apr 26, 2001
31,046
321
136
Thanks for sharing, but posting this stuff in public may be bad if they start investigating you.

my thoughts exactly, you posted really specific details on a massive public forum. sort of makes the anonymous email less effective.
 

waterjug

Senior member
Jan 21, 2012
930
0
76
Way to go, man. That's some big league stuff. I agree with the above, know what it takes to cya, and then cya. And watch your back...sounds like some of these people have gone pretty low and one never knows how low they're willing to go to take care of their interests first.

This is true, may edit the OP to make it a little less specific; although this screen name is completely different from any others I use, and the post is general enough that I don't think someone could search for it on google or something and find it.
 

Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,688
126
By posting about it, if there's even one tidbit wrong on your account of the situation, you all of a sudden open yourself up at the very least to a massive libel action by the company and the tables would be turned.

That seems pretty unlikely to me. The company would need to show damages and demonstrate that the damages were the result of the libel. If this was Great Britain though, I'd agree, their libel laws are insane.

This is true, may edit the OP to make it a little less specific; although this screen name is completely different from any others I use, and the post is general enough that I don't think someone could search for it on google or something and find it.

Well, if you do talk to an attorney, I don't think we'll be hearing much from you about this going forward. It's pretty hard for me to imagine any lawyer saying "oh yeah, go ahead, post about it on the internet! Knock yourself out!"

So, good luck.
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
32,675
146
106
www.neftastic.com
That seems pretty unlikely to me. The company would need to show damages and demonstrate that the damages were the result of the libel. If this was Great Britain though, I'd agree, their libel laws are insane.

If I am not mistaken (which I may be), the OP's actions have already caused harm to some of the higher level employees within the company itself. I'm simply saying CYA, as from top to bottom the OP talking about this publicly at this point could be doing more harm to his credibility than good.
 

kranky

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
21,019
156
106
OP, you have my admiration for taking the steps you took. I hope everything works out great for you.

If we only had more people willing to take action a lot of the corruption at taxpayer expense would stop.
 

Attic

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2010
4,282
2
76
Good for you, it takes balls to stand up for this shit.

I'll second this. It's essential for folks like the OP to have the courage to stand up and be heard. It also gives strength to the other individuals in similar situations who have a chance to do something.



"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"

I really would love for more people to stand up against the abuses of power we see in so many areas of our lives.

To OP, if you haven't already, I would contact a news station. Given, amongst other nefarious activity, your company was defrauding government (taking tax payer money not owed them) there will be a receptive audience. If you need funds for lawyer or any kind of representation don't hesitate to setup a donation site and let me know.
 

JTsyo

Lifer
Nov 18, 2007
12,035
1,134
126
For the federal government, if you help them catch fraud against them, you're entitled to a percent of the fines that are collected. Not sure if the government work your company was doing was for state or federal.
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
Nov 30, 2005
50,231
118
116
Wow, amazing. I've been wondering what would happen with all of this and I'm happy to see you take the action you did. Well done. :thumbsup: Hopefully you can let us know exactly what happens going forward. Crazy stuff.

KT
 

Attic

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2010
4,282
2
76
Also, I was secretly hoping this thread title was sexual innuendo from a female who got promoted at her place of work.