Bradley Birkenfeld, an American Banker which worked at a Swiss based UBS was recently rewarded US-$104 million by the U.S Internal Revenue Service.
UBS is a global financial services company which serves their clients in over 50 countries.

A Whistleblower by definition “is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company or the Government .” Exposing illegal activities should be a moral. But why is an act of moral being rewarded $104 million? What is the motivation behind some of these whistle blowers? There is an US federal whistleblower law which offers financial reward as much as 30% of the tax collected from the information provided. Is this the incentive the government should give to workers? It should be made mandatory for large organizations to have an ethics oversight or an internal review process for such issues not the workers. I believe stronger laws need to be enforced due to the potential impact this act can have on one’s life. In the case of Brad Birkenfeld, whose bank account increased a few digits, should now be worry free but that may not be the case for other individuals. Unfortunately though regardless of the motives, society deems these people as snitches, traitors, and untrustworthy.

104million for doing something that’s right, whats wrong with this picture?

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/09/11/ubs-whistleblower-gets-us104-million-irs-award/