Time Magazine’s Person of the Year

Time magazine’s named her Person of the Year in 2002 along with two other female whistleblowers. She is the author of Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron. Her name is Sherron Watkins.

Watkins will discuss “The Lessons of Enron: The Importance of Ethical Leadership.”

Watkins is the former vice president of Enron Corporation who warned CEO Ken Lay in August 2001 about accounting problems within the company, and told him that Enron “might implode in a wave of accounting scandals.” Later she testified before Congressional Committees from the House and Senate.

Before its bankruptcy in late 2001, Enron was one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas, pulp and paper, and communications companies. At the end of 2001 it was revealed that its reported financial condition was sustained substantially by systematic accounting fraud. The scandal also brought into question the accounting practices of many U.S. corporations and was a factor in the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Watkins joined Enron in late 1993, initially working for Andrew Fastow, managing Enron’s $1 billion-plus portfolio of energy-related investments. She held the portfolio management position for more than three years, transferring at the start of 1997 to Enron’s international group focusing primarily on mergers and acquisitions of energy assets around the world. In early 2000, Watkins transferred into Enron’s broadband unit where she worked on various projects until late June of 2001 when she went back to work for Fastow in his new area of responsibility over the mergers and acquisitions group of Enron. She resigned from Enron in November 2002.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Richard P. Gifford Lecture Series sponsored by Lynchburg College School of Business and Economics. A reception and book signing will follow. For more information, contact Paul Kelbaugh at 434-544-8417.

Sherron Watkins and Ethics In The Workplace

(video)

This whistleblower lodged a complaint which led to the largest criminal fine in American history

An ethics think tank has named John Kopchinski, a Pfizer Inc. whistleblower, as 2009’s most influential person in business ethics.

Ethisphere, which focuses on business ethics, corporate social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability, ranked Kopchinski first on its list of the 100 most influential people in business ethics, according to its Web site.

According to the organization, “Kopchinski blew the whistle on Pfizer’s marketing activity and received $51.1 million of the penalty that Pfizer paid for illegally marketing some of its drugs. Four other whistleblowers received some of the award as well, but Kopchinski earned the largest piece of the pie for his role. Officially turned whistleblowing into big business.”

As a former sales representative for Pfizer, Kopchinski exposed the company’s illegal sales and marketing campaign for the prescription painkiller Bextra for off-label uses and in doses that endangered patients’ health and lives.

Acording to Phillips & Cohen LLP of Washington, D.C., which represented Kopchinski, the Food & Drug Administration approved Bextra to treat arthritis as well as menstrual pain in very limited doses. Phillips & Cohen specializes in representing whistleblowers in cases involving fraud against the government, tax matters and securities violations.

Kopchinski alleged in his lawsuit – which the government joined – that Pfizer promoted Bextra for uses and in doses that far exceeded what the FDA had approved, putting patients at risk for heart attack, stroke and pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung). Bextra was withdrawn from the market in 2005.

In a statement Friday, Pfizer reiterated its denial of the civil allegations set forth in the multiple complaints, but acknowledged “certain improper promotional conduct related to Zyvox and the Bextra conduct involved in the plea agreement.”

Pfizer paid $1.8 billion in September to the government to settle Kopchinski’s lawsuit and a related criminal charge. The company settled four other whistleblower lawsuits at the same time, bringing the total settlement to $2.3 billion. It was the largest health care fraud settlement ever and the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the U.S.

Pfizer Whistle Blower