USAA whistleblowers want to be heard—and now

Jaeger_opinion

In the 15 years I’ve been writing for Compliance Week, never have I covered a company that has evoked as much anger and palpable relief from so many current and former employees as USAA—anger toward its senior executives and management, and relief someone finally had the courage to come forward publicly.

Since Compliance Week published its three-part series on USAA’s “catastrophically mismanaged” compliance culture, more current and former USAA employees (nearly two dozen, to date) have shared with me their own experiences about reporting alleged violations of law internally to USAA’s management—some on numerous occasions and in documented emails—only to be retaliated against or let go in response.

For the sake of this specific column, Compliance Week has chosen to leave all names anonymous, including the allegedly culpable management. But what I will share is all the employees who came forward to me either worked or currently work in various departments at various levels of the organization—from the lower ranks to upper management. In any organization, that’s typically a sign of a systemically unhealthy culture.

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