December 16, 2010
It seems pretty clear to me that the only reason that an agency such as the SEC (or the IRS) would push so hard for everything to be handled "internally" is so that they can pick and chose themselves whom to go after, and can handily "overlook" the cases of any of their favorite Cronies that happen to pop up. They already have years of backlog for "good cases." Good, money-making cases. Do I even have to mention how onerous this is at a time when money is tight, to say the least? Not to mention all the jobs this creates for the glut of attorneys in our economy.
Also, when a whistleblower is forced to go through stringent "internal" procedures to report massive fraud, the company that's employing the likely higher ups who are committing this fraud, is now completely aware that at least one of its employees (the whistleblower) is completely aware that outright fraud is being committed by its higher-ups. And this NEVER looks good for a company, and even if they genuinely want to stop the fraud, they also genuinely want to cover it up. Now, what if the people committing the fraud are also the same people the whistleblower is supposed to report to? There are so many different scenarios of conflict of interest in that set-up that it's mind-boggling. It's not the same thing, but this nevertheless reminds me of those arbitrary agreements they call arbitration agreements that remove the individual's rights to a trial so corporations can suck up all of their court time. Or so the military and mercenaries can hide their high crimes against women. It's the same kind of disingenuousness at work.