By Adam Turteltaub

Why do employees go outside the company to blow the whistle?  Are they in it for the money?  Out for revenge?  Or, did someone just not listen to them?

Eric Havian, partner in the San Francisco office of Constantine Cannon, offers his perspective based on years of qui tam cases.  In this podcast he discusses:

* The impact of the SEC program on the number of whistleblowers

* Why the SEC whistleblower program is leading more people to come forward

* The increased belief by whistleblowers that their identity will be protected and they will not be retaliated against

* Money is rarely the motivating factor for blowing the whistle

* Frustration is much more of a factor: the employee has seen and reported something wrong, but no one has acted, they believe

* Thinking of whistleblowers as people who can’t do the wrong thing or walk away when they see something wrong

* Whistleblowers typically exhaust internal mechanisms before going to outside counsel

* Staying inside the company is largely driven by which compliance programs are trusted and which aren’t

* Why people are resistant to being told that they are doing something wrong or illegal

* The criticality of protecting employees from retaliation.