Whistleblowing is risky business. Sure, in the finance sector in the U.S. one executive gets millions from the IRS. He helped recover funds from offshore accounts which hadn't been taxed. But the bulter at the Vactican who leaked secret documents to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi didn't make out as well.
As THE WASHINGTON POST reports, butler to Pope Bendict XVI, Paolo Gabiele was convicted of theft and sentenced to 18 months. That sentence could be reduced since he has expressed remorse. Gabiele contends that at the time he took the documents he assumed it was the right thing to do. He intended to expose corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. The book Nuzzi derived from it supposedly rocked the Vatican.
As we know from game-changers like the outing of abuse of power in Watergate, whistleblowers must be very careful. Reform comes from the outside, based on the information they pass along without leaving tracks.
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