The True sTory of Mark WhiTacre, a young
execuTive aT aDM, The Movie folloWs WhiTacre
as he Discovers ThaT his execuTive colleagues
aT aDM are aT The rooT of a Massive, global
lysine price-fixing scheMe. insTeaD of colluD-
ing anD going along WiTh Their scaM, WhiTacre
flips, Turning eviDence for The fbi anD
ThroWing his colleagues To The sharks.
Mark Whitacre Photo: Wikimedia.
www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020 31
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their professional life. Like Mark Whitacre,
most come off as quiet, unassuming good,
maybe only mediocre, employees.
In a recent Vanguard article, I wrote on
insider threats from the personnel screen-
ing and psychological perspectives (Spies
Among Us: Are We Blind To Insider
Threats? Sept. 2019) and what works,
what doesn't and maybe why. And that
was the take-away: we don't really know.
We know more about whistleblowers.
Whistleblowers are motivated by an altru-
istic form of snitching meant to benefit
the public, an institution or sometimes
the greater social, political or ideological
goal common to the institution or their
society. The important distinction is that
whistleblowers – true whistleblowers – do
not stand to personally advance or benefit
from their act, except maybe only attempt-
ing to regain what they once had or they
felt they were entitled to.
A whistleblower's actions and conduct
are defining and essentially determine
their legitimacy: Did they exhaust all for-
mal processes prior to going public? Were
their actions in good faith and meant pre-
serve a public interest? How these are an-
swered is important as they separate those
motivated by benevolence from those with
malicious or retaliatory intent.
Pro-social activists exist in a bit of a grey
area but fall into the catch-all term 'insider
threat.' Focused more on benefitting a
social theme for the public good, or what
they perceive to be the benefit of the pub-
lic (think Manning, Snowden, Assange),
pro-social activists often emerge from ar-
eas of intelligence and extreme privilege.
