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

As a recruiter, I had a station commander that wasn’t playing by the rules (we called them crooks back then) and I caught him. Being that I was an MP, I took the evidence and gave it to MEPS. I was persona non grata for the rest of my time as a recruiter. I am still that way today, I have ethics and will do what is right no matter what the end result is.

Whistle blower Actions performed. Crimes and U.C.M.J. violations covered up and denied from then Detachment Commander through ALL levels of Chain-of-Command, INCLUDING the CINC/POTUS (excluding POTUS 45) and Follow-Up attempts seeking Redress and Restitution from 1988 to 2016. Presently (2020), CINC/POTUS 45 has been informed. Stage play written. Crimes, primary and related, are still to hot for some folks as GUILTY verdicts would impact General and Senior Field Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers who ALL failed, categorically, to uphold their respective Oaths AND the stated US Army Values (Loyalty. Duty. Respect. Selfless Service. Honor. Integrity. Personal Courage. L.D.R.S.H.I.P.) and to care for Soldiers under their respective watches. Aye, Capt. Rick in Central Texas.

Once an individual subject to the UCMJ violates the Code, they have made themselves a domestic enemy which any member of the DOD has sworn to protect our nation against. If you accept my interpretation, you must take action. My path regarding the situation depends on the nature of the perceived violation. If the violation is procedural and lacking any motivation for personal gain or harm toward another, if the senior has gained my respect otherwise, I would discuss it with my senior and offer him/her the opportunity to discuss the reasoning behind their actions and take corrective action or reveal the situation to their senior. If the perceived violation resulted in personal gain to the individual or subjected either the command or others to potential harm, I would go to the individual's senior. The important thing to remember is that many violations may exist in my mind based upon information available to me. The alleged violator deserves both a full investigation and the opportunity to defend himself, even if my evidence makes me feel it is an open and shut case.

My point is, my interpretation of the alleged circumstance leads me to believe my senior has violated the code or our oath and I have a duty to ensure appropriate actions are taken to determine the validity of my suspicions. Determining the validity of my suspicions and any action necessary to punish the violation is not my right. I must ensure that action is taken to determine my senior's actions which caused me concern are investigated by someone who can cause the situation to be fully investigated and then remediated. I have the duty to reveal the alleged irregularity up the chain until my mind is satisfied and justice has been rendered, either in the violators favor or not, but many of our problems today reflect the unwillingness of reporters to accept they can be wrong.

Once (more than) upon a time:
I have some Navy stories, but they will wait for another time.

I started work at NASA (Marshall Space flight Center, Al.) in 1987. I managed hundreds of Boeing subcontracts relating to the Space Station. I wrote complaints about many of the contracts- my boss told me to stop as no one wanted to read them. Some of the Boeing managers wanted my boss to replace me- he couldn’t find anyone else to take the job. I sent a few complaints to the IG (Inspector General) and got “dressed down” by my boss and his ultimate contracts supervisor. IG complaints were “supposed” to be protected disclosures- meaning anonymity.

About 1992, my boss and I had a disagreement about my performance evaluation. I blew up as he tried to calm me down with” you don’t understand the system” baloney. From here I became management’s nightmare- a tye-died whistle-blower. I didn’t deal with the IG for the first two years- I went directly to OSC (Office of Special Counsel) and FLRA (Federal Labor Relations authority) I got laid off, I was downgraded, threatened and more. My home phone gave me trouble so I complained to the phone company- the technician pulled a “tap” from under my house and disconnected an auxiliary phone line. Forget cable- I unsubscribed and set my TV on the curb. I used the local library instead. One of the IG ‘drones’ tried to run me down in the NASA parking lot. I reported it to NASA police that did nothing. I heard them laughing when I left. I reported it to Army Provost- they held the lease on NASA facilities. I also reported it to the Alabama State Police That IG was transferred.

I could go on, I have literally hundreds of tales during my whistle-blowing. The bottom line is this: if you accept a little theft or abuse, then, you are as rotten as any of them.

Advice for whistle-blowers: find someone two levels above the culprit. 30 days after the complaint follow up to the “ultimate boss.” Watch the movie, Silkwood.

These two links are MY “bust their chops” Supreme Court case. It was decided 4 years after I was fired :)
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/72202/flra-v-nasa/?
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/118306/nasa-v-flra/

As with all whistle blowers, here is my advice. don't go to anyone such as a supervisor first. Seek outside assistance, such as a police detective or better yet a private detective. From an evidence perspective, let that detective tell you if there really is a crime going on and what evidence there is or might be obtained. Only then, start making the necessary reports.

The main reason nobody does anything when reported to supervisors and leadership is that they have no idea how to verify and validate your observations. When you don't know how to do something you ignore it or are chastised because your bringing a headache to them because they don't know what to do. Moreover, they don't like taking the risk of pursuing the whistle-blowers claim when they themselves don't understand what is really going on.

In summary, the whistle-blower should first seek outside assistance so they can be sure there is really a problem and that there are ways to obtain necessary evidence before going forward.

In 2020 era, I would never directly confront. I would take it up with the chain of command. I've only had that situation once on a military base in VA. Several times things were discarded improperly, went up the chain of command and was ignored. Then jumped the chain and got CID involved.

Wrong is wrong....have the personal courage to report it!!!

I had a section chief who was a racist, dirty scumbag who was very abusive towards anyone who was not ghetto. I warned him about his abuse and he threatened to fuck me up. (I was about twice his size) I had friends who had friends and one day one of my friends stood off to the side watching our 1630 formation and watched how he treated people after the 1SG dismissed the Battery. Pretty soon he got a big shit sandwich. He got kicked out of our unit and I looked him right in the eye and said "Gee, I wonder how that happened". I am pretty sure he put 2 and 2 together then and there.

I have seen that happened many times. During OIF 2003-2004, an engineer brigade ordered a fleet of SUV from Kuwait for the Colonel and his staff with FOUO money, while their Soldiers riding a skeletal HMMWV and living in their vehicles. Words from the grapevine were $80,000 per SUV, and there are Col, XO, S1, S2, S3, S6, and CSM. Luckily CSM refused to have one. If I remember correctly, he wrote skeletal HMMWV just like every soldier does. He also got RPG up his tailpipe (the back of his HMMWV, not his a**). Luckily, it didn't explode. All he said was, "Tell the EOD to get that shit off my HMMWV." Not all CSM are created equal. This was when the time where people started to ask why we do not have an armored HMMWV. Some other unit mechanics started welding salvaged steel plates on as a door for small arms protection.

Loyalty is something we must have as a Soldier. However, most people must realize that the first and foremost loyalty we should have is to Uncle Sam, your peers, your supervisors, and your subordinates are secondary. After all, he is the one who cut your paycheck and gives you compensation and benefit. If you are self-serving, then think of it this way, "The more you save for Uncle Sam, the more he can give you for your conveniences." That's my belief anyway.

If you are going to be a whistleblower, try to keep it in the house first (within the unit). Then escalate if not, remember you are going to pay for your good deed. Try to keep it as the least expensive as possible. My last act as loyalty to the Army and the Soldiers was shutting down something that wastes the money and has been for over five years. I kept it within the unit, of course, but I burnt a lot of bridges on that. A friend of mind and a boss told me that he was told not to waste all the chips on me, save them for other Soldiers too. This may sound heroic, but my reply was, "Don't worry. I'll be fine." Like I have said, the money I saved from shutting down the project can be used by the units deployed in the Middle East. That's what I was hoping anyway. In the end, I was medically retired and never made past E6, but I have a small house-- not a piece of rag for a blanket and a shopping cart for a house and transportation.

Bottom line is, "Do what you can afford to lose." As long as you can live with your conscience and consequences. In the end, what you will decide to do is based on who you actually are and how well you are with "the game of throne."

The fraud I saw in the military was child's play, compared to the "real world" construction, union, trades organizations and authorities I have had to do business with. I will say the military woke me up though. Thing is I am shitty when it comes to playing the politics game, so I had to get out and do my own thing till I am at the top of the food chain in my field. Doesn't matter which fish bowl your swimming in though, there were fish in it before you got there, they got their game, you either play or start your own. Every where I was in the military there was a game, a racket or a fraud of some kind. I guess by now I would be the big fish in the pond or retired, but not likely to be in jail for fraud. I guess this is why I am still slogging it out in the trades.