If you found out your Leader or Immediate Supervisor was doing something against the law, like fraud, what would you do?

This is probably a really bad, politically incorrect answer, but what kind of fraud? Single mothers who have an under the table job but still receive WIC and food stamps probably isnt a big deal. Kind of like the SPC that gives those green leader books away without annotating them in the supply log. Just saying.

Back in 2012, I was an HR Manager for a recruitment firm. My boss was hiring people seeking H1Bs, making the employee pay for their visa, etc. Once hired, he was not properly verifying their work authorization (I-9). I set up a legal process for remote employees but the boss said it was unnecessary. I refused to sign my name and formally protested via email. That week, he began bringing bottles of liquor for the office to enjoy on Fridays. I declined to imbibe as I felt I was being set up. A couple of weeks later he asked me to resign, but I made him fire me and state his reason. Glad I am not longer there.

I ran into a few during my career. I was put up for a court marshal twice, charges dropped. Relieved duty and flagged by a battalion commander once, reinstated by the division commander. In that case I immediately applied for a transfer. The week that I left the battalion commander, who had only held the position for 6 months was offered a reassignment to a non-command position. As I was processing out of the unit, that battalion commander wrote me a great NCOER and told me that in his career he had run a number of NCOs out of the Army and I was the only one that had the ball to fight back and win. I am sure those incidents had an effect on my promote ability. To me, my ethics and integrity was more important.

Turn them in!

When I was a company commander, my TF commander switched out and was replaced by an "interim commander" because the new commander could not deploy to us for four months. It was a joint task force with a complex intel mission supporting operations throughout Afghanistan, so the complexity of the mission, legalisms, etc. were numerous. The interim commander was extremely toxic: from things like some of my Soldiers seen going in and out of her CHU in the middle of the night (all of which were treated with favoritism by her), to sending Soldiers outside the wire without proper equipment or proper support, to demanding the NCOs and mission supervisors break regulations and laws so she could look favorable to a superior, and disregarding the advice of senior warrant officers and NCOs on mission in favor of Lieutenants who lacked the experience and knowledge to carry it out sufficiently. I constantly found myself in her office confronting her with my concerns to be accused of trying to stir up drama to discredit a female superior. I once went in there with another company commander (whose Soldier was one of the three Soldiers exiting the Major's CHU in the middle of the night) to jointly air our concerns. She threatened us both with trying to discredit her and if she heard this accusation again, she would relieve us and redeploy us immediately. On mission, she basically sidelined my most knowledgeable people in favor of much less knowledgeable and experienced officers and Soldiers because they were less willing to give push-back to her guidance, a lot of which bordered (if not crossed) lines of legality. Since I was mainly beans and bullets and not that much involved with the mission other that basic HHC stuff, I did not witness the brunt of anything other than the CHU incident. But my NCOs all came to me in a cluster one day and wanted to know their options after telling me the things they had seen. I went and spoke with JAG, who gave me the step by step process of filing a toxic leadership complaint. I created the packet and had all of the NCOs create sworn statements for submission up the chain. I felt it prudent to talk to her one last time (big mistake) and let her know that there were concerns and that she should address these concerns in some way because there is some feeling around the company that the working environment is not as it should be. It started as a jovial conversation that quickly turned hostile when she ordered me to give her a list of names of those who had talked to me by the end of the day or she was going to assume I was making the whole things up and she would counsel me for it and decide later what she was going to do with me. So I went through with the complaint (which was really a step to determine if someone higher than her should do an investigation). The JAG came down from Kabul to my AO and talked to the NCOs and myself, and the complaint lost traction when the NCOs were informed that since she is a field grade officer, she is allowed to see their statements un-redacted during the investigation. They figured at that point that waiting a few months for the next TF Commander would be preferable to trying to pursue this route, so that's what ended up happening. I still have the packet saved in my "kit bag" and I take it out and read all of the statements to remind myself of what should have happened. Sadly, this individual is still in and was promoted to LTC.

I would certainly take a moment to think about who and where to report it and how to go about that but report it I would. Sometimes situations like this can best be handled outside the organization making you less vulnerable than if you report it within the organization. However not reporting it would not be an option since it then makes you vulnerable in some ways and you being culpable or complicit. During my career I would always make others aware to not put me in any kind of situation that might jeopardize me, my integrity, and my career if I thought there might be a need to. That in itself was usually enough so that I did not encounter this kind of problem so much or as much as some others might have. The few times I did then it was really a surprise and one that others had already sometimes taken action on and was under investigation in most cases so no action was needed on my part. I did take one situation to the OSI when I became aware of it and another to the IG and those few and lesser others were taken to my commander and handled internally due to their low level and they being minor in nature.

Take Notes collect proof and evidence as well as who was involved and go well above their heads if necessary to the top if they do nothing then most likely they are involved but keep your six covered and your head down ears and eyes open they are out there in all ranks and all people you find out quickly who you can and trust and who you can't and you find if you are smart trust no one .

I will tell you what I did, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have high morels. I found that a High Ranking Officer was embezzling money and connected to the KKK. So I went AWOL , with documentation, and turned myself over to another Higher Ranking Officer in which I was reassigned and the high ranking officer was relived of Command. I was told that I would never see E-6 and I had a snow balls chance of ever making E-7. So with 25 years of Service and 17 years time in grade I retired. I went to the Board for E-6 three times and failed once. When I failed my board only lasted about 60 seconds. When I passed the other two boards all documentation came up missing or never made it to S-4. If I had it to do all over again, I would not change a thing. During my Military career, I had only one Article 15. In 1975 I was thirty seconds late to formation because I had just signed into the Unit and didn't know where the Motor Pool was. It cost me $25.00 and two weeks extra duty. I retired in 2015. Check out my profile, I never stopped being an NCO who cared about both the Army and my Soldiers.

This situation was presented to me on 2 occasions. Once I was working with a contractor for the NAVY and DoD. It appeared that my supervisor was the lead in the criminal activities, while he had all his subordinates, participating. I did not participate and was threatened....indirectly.... by many of the personnel that worked at this site. I went on the FBI website, and presented them with a tip. Why the FBI...because the criminal activity was within their scope of work.

Another similar situation at the chemical plant in Monaca, PA. I wouldn't join in and was subsequently pushed out the door.

After the discipline I had in the Marine Corps I respect anything and anyone first. But if I saw someone breaking that law I would not look the other way and go to the person I know that would handle that type of situation.