In an exclusive event hosted by the Wake Forest University Center for the Study of Capitalism, Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins joins John Kostyack, Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center and Kobre & Kim partner Bill McGovern with hosts Christina Elson and Richard Levick. The panel will take place Tuesday, September 22 at 1pm EST.
Since 1787, the United States has protected whistleblowers. Behind virtually every major fraud investigation in the United States is a whistleblower. In 2001, whistleblower Sherron Watkins now famously warned that Enron could “implode in a wave of accounting scandals.”
After the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, the federal government initiated more protections and financial incentives for whistleblowers so they could safely and effectively expose financial fraud and protect investors. Yet by 2019, the President of the United States appeared to violate federal whistleblower protection laws by trying to unmask an alleged government whistleblower that had led to his own impeachment.
Are whistleblowers heroes or villains? How do whistleblowers protect themselves from unscrupulous and opaque corporate and government executives? How should companies protect themselves from overzealous and financially incentivized whistleblowers?
Join three esteemed experts,
- Sherron Watkins, former Vice President of Corporate Development at Enron, Enron whistleblower, author, and speaker;
- John Kostyack, Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center, writer, public speaker, and thought leader; and
- William McGovern, a partner at Kobre & Kim, former U.S. SEC branch chief, guest speaker, and writer;
and hosts, Richard Levick (Chairman & CEO of LEVICK, the international crisis firm) and Christina Elson (Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Capitalism) as they discuss trends, regulation, whistleblower protection, monetization, and what’s next for this critically important function.