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THE ECOSYSTEM OF TRUTH

Scientific Studies on Investigative Journalism, Whistleblowing, and Leaks

​This webpage of the Corporate Crime Observatory is dedicated to scientific research events focused on analyzing the multi-layered phenomenological environment that our Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Costantino Grasso, describes as the "Ecosystem of Truth."


The concept of the "Ecosystem of Truth" refers to the complex phenomenological interconnections between investigative journalism, whistleblowing, and leaks, and their interplay with public and private actors. This ecosystem operates as a dynamic network, with intricate relationships that form a vital part of both democratic processes and the pursuit of justice, where truth is uncovered and addressed through coordinated efforts from multiple actors.

The studies featured in this series of events will aim to provide a deeper understanding of the intricate dynamics within the ecosystem of truth. These events will explore how various actors—such as investigative journalists, whistleblowers, government agencies, corporations, and civil society—interact and influence one another within this ecosystem. By exploring these relationships, the studies will shed light on how truth is constructed, challenged, and disseminated, as well as the ways in which these interactions contribute to the exposure of wrongdoing and the pursuit of justice. The goal is to analyze the mechanisms through which these actors collaborate, the barriers they face, and the broader impact their efforts have on democratic accountability and transparency.

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This research series on the "Ecosystem of Truth" represents the continuation of the research efforts initiated during the International Roundtable "From Leaks to Justice: Challenges and Opportunities for the Judiciary in the Age of Disclosure" held in May 2024. The event provided a comprehensive platform for exploring the impact of major leaks such as the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, and LuxLeaks on the pursuit of justice. Organized in collaboration with the Italian Judicial College, Moldovan National Institute of Justice, and other esteemed institutions, the event facilitated a rich exchange of knowledge between investigative journalists and legal professionals. The ongoing research on the "Ecosystem of Truth" builds on these foundations, further investigating the complex dynamics between disclosures, journalism, and legal processes to enhance transparency and accountability in democratic societies.

From Revelation to Justice: The Socio-Legal Dynamics of Disclosures

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The Corporate Crime Observatory (CCO) in partnership with Manchester Law School organised the International Roundtable "From Revelation to Justice: The Socio-Legal Dynamics of Disclosures," which explored the complex intersection between unofficial forms of revelations (e.g., investigative journalism, whistleblower disclosures, and leaks) and the pursuit of justice, as well as the reinforcement of the rule of law and democratic values. The presentations provided insights into how these disclosures can uncover otherwise obscure illicit activities, alongside the legal, ethical, and procedural challenges involved in integrating such revelations into formal legal processes.

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The International Roundtable took place on October 24, 2024. The video recordings of the entire event are available below:

Direct links to presentations:

Suggested Citation

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BLUEBOOK: ​[Name Surname], ‘From Revelation to Justice: The Socio-Legal Dynamics of Disclosures,’ CORPORATE CRIME OBSERVATORY, at ​[00:00] (Oct. 24, 2024), www.corporatecrime.co.uk/ecosystem-of-truth/#comp-m2a79ncw

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APA: ​[Surname, Initial] (2024, Oct. 24). ‘From Revelation to Justice: The Socio-Legal Dynamics of Disclosures’. Corporate Crime Observatory. Video recording at ​[00:00]. Retrieved from www.corporatecrime.co.uk/ecosystem-of-truth/#comp-m2a79ncw

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HARVARD: [Surname, Initial] (2024) ‘From Revelation to Justice: The Socio-Legal Dynamics of Disclosures’. Corporate Crime Observatory. Video recording at ​[00:00]. Available at: www.corporatecrime.co.uk/ecosystem-of-truth/#comp-m2a79ncw

OSCOLA: ​[Name Surname], ‘From Revelation to Justice: The Socio-Legal Dynamics of Disclosures’, (Corporate Crime Observatory, 24 October 2024), video recording at​ [00:00] <www.corporatecrime.co.uk/ecosystem-of-truth/#comp-m2a79ncw>

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Organizer and Moderator: Costantino Grasso

Costantino is an Associate Professor in Business and Law at Manchester Law School, Founder and Editor in Chief of the Corporate Crime Observatory and the Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics Blog. He specializes in corporate and economic crime, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, and whistleblowing. He serves as an international expert on corruption and good governance for the Council of Europe and has acted as a Principal Investigator for both EU-funded and NATO-funded international research projects. Costantino is a qualified solicitor in the UK and a lawyer in Italy, and he worked as part of the prosecuting team in the anti-bribery division of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

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Annalisa Mangiaracina

Annalisa is a Professor of Criminal Procedure Law at the University of Palermo and a Visiting Scholar at Manchester Metropolitan University. She teaches courses on Criminal Procedure Law, European, International and Comparative Criminal Procedure, Judicial Cooperation, Security and Migrant’s rights. She coordinated the European Project EUROCOORD and took part in several European research projects. Her research interests include proceedings in absentia; appeals; extraordinary remedies; instruments of judicial cooperation in criminal matters; EPPO; rights of migrants; and corporate crimes. She is the author of two and several articles and collective works on different topics regarding national criminal procedure law as well as European and International criminal procedure law, written also in English and Spanish.   

From Disclosure to Action: Exploring the Impact of Whistleblowing on Criminal Investigations in Italy

In March 2023, Italy transposed the EU Whistleblower Directive, whose primary aim is to provide a framework for protecting individuals who report breaches of EU law. Undoubtedly, the new legislation represents a turning point in the fight against economic crimes, but some issues still need to be addressed. To begin exploring some of the most relevant concerns, this presentation will offer a preliminary analysis of the interaction between whistleblowers' disclosures and the investigations they trigger. It aims to answer questions such as: How are investigations conducted? What roles do whistleblowers and other third parties play during criminal proceedings, and what guarantees are offered to them? What is the position of the natural and legal persons involved?

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David Seide

David is Senior Counsel at Government Accountability Project, the leading whistleblower protection organization in the United States. David has extensive public-sector and private-sector experience.  He has served in senior positions in the US Department of Justice, as a white-collar prosecutor, the US Senate, the US Department of State’s Office of Inspector General, and the US Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of Inspector General.  As a former partner in international law firms represented private clients and corporations in official investigations.  Since joining GAP in 2019, David has represented dozens of whistleblowers in investigations conducted by the US Congress, the US Department of Justice, and Offices of Inspector Generals throughout the US Government.

Case Studies on Whistleblowing Leading to Formal Government Investigations

This presentation explores the crucial link between whistleblowing disclosures and the initiation of official government investigations, drawing from notable recent cases in both the public and private sectors. Using the Enron scandal as one of the examples, it examines how media coverage amplified whistleblower reports to government agencies, ultimately leading to criminal prosecutions, convictions, and the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This act represents a significant legislative shift aimed at protecting corporate whistleblowers. The presentation will highlight how these processes unfold and their broader impact on corporate governance and legal frameworks.

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Elisa Renzi
Captain Elisa Renzi is an Italian Military of Guardia di Finanza Corps, a Tax Police mainly engaged in combating Financial and Economic crimes. She has served first in the Group of Pozzuoli in Naples, where she worked in various Law enforcement operations, including anti-drugs trafficking and anti-smuggling ops. In 2022, she was assigned to the Company of Spoleto as Commander of the Unit, engaging in a different mission: to prevent and repress crimes against the Public Administration, like the undue perception of national and EU resources.

Uncovering Corruption in Waste Management

In 2022, The Guardia di Finanza of Rome began an investigation thanks to a detailed report given to the military by a whistleblower, a woman who had direct knowledge of the events concerning corruption in the public sector of Local waste management. Under the coordination of the Public Prosecutor, the delegated police made numerous investigations, among which telephone interceptions and they discovered that the legal representative of the Company, that managed the garbage disposal in the City, gave some public assignments in exchange for money. The price of this bribery scheme was about 100 million euros. At the end of the investigation, three people were arrested and the bank account of the corrupt CEO has been seized. The whistle-blower has never been damaged after his gesture.

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Mary Inman

Mary is a partner in the San Francisco office of Whistleblower Partners LLP and a veteran whistleblower lawyer, having worked exclusively representing whistleblowers for the past 26 years under the increasing array of U.S. and international whistleblower reward programs. Mary has helped her clients, including Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, forge partnerships with the various government agencies that leverage whistleblower information to expose corporate frauds.  Mary is an internationally recognized expert on the extraterritorial reach of the U.S. whistleblower reward programs and a regular commentator on all things whistleblower for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, BBC, FT, Fortune and Time.

From FinCEN Files Leaks to the Whistleblower Reward Program: How Natalie Edwards' Leaks Led to a Change in Governance

While working for the U.S. Treasury Department, whistleblower Natalie Edwards shared with a journalist at BuzzFeed News thousands of Suspicious Activity Reports and a treasure trove of other confidential Treasury Department documents showing staggering amounts of dirty money flowing through many of the top Western Banks.  Working together with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 100s of news organizations globally used this data to create an investigative series of articles known as the FinCEN Files, which inspired the U.S. Congress to adopt a program to reward whistleblowers bringing tips to the Treasury Department about violations of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, the U.S.’s primary money laundering law.  Although she paved the way for whistleblowers to safely bring information about money laundering to the Treasury Department and receive a financial reward if the information proved helpful to the Government, Ms. Edwards was criminally prosecuted for leading confidential government information and served five months in prison and three years of probation.  Through this story, we’ll explore the disparate treatment that the U.S. Government gives to government whistleblowers as compared to private whistleblowers. 

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Gianfranco Scarfò

Gianfranco is an Italian prosecutor with a diverse background in criminal law. He has served in the Prosecution Offices of Palermo and Naples, where he worked in two distinct areas: Financial and Economic Crimes as well as the Anti-Mafia Sections. In 2020, he transitioned to a specialized role focusing on crimes against the Public Administration. Additionally, in 2017, he was assigned to the Anti-Terrorism Section. As of October 2022, Gianfranco took on a leadership role as the Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the Prosecution Office of Benevento, where he leads the Financial and Economic Crimes Section.

Integrating Investigative Journalism with Legal Processes: Insights and Experiences from the Italian Prosecutorial System

This presentation will explore the complex dynamics between investigative journalism and the formal legal process in Italy. Drawing on a public prosecutor’s perspective, the discussion will address the practical challenges and opportunities that arise when integrating revelations from investigative journalism into legal proceedings. 

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Ian Foxley

Ian is a British Army Veteran with 24 years of service, commanding an arctic warfare troop, a parachute squadron, and a divisional communications regiment in Bosnia-Herzegovina during UN and NATO missions. He also lectured at the Army Command and Staff College and spent two years in counter-terrorism, followed by a secondment to the Australian Army, where he played rugby for their team. After leaving the military, Ian worked in telecommunications, where he blew the whistle on corrupt payments during a £1.96 billion UK/Saudi defence contract. His actions led to a €3.6 billion fine for Airbus and significant corporate changes. He founded Whistleblowers UK and Parrhesia Inc., organizations supporting whistleblowers and advocating for legislative reform. Ian holds a PhD in Politics, an MA in Applied Human Rights from the University of York, and a BSc in Applied Science from the Royal Military College of Science.

The Revelation of Wrongdoing

To quote the Sound of Music, ‘We need to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start…’ In our consideration of the legal, ethical, and procedural challenges involved in dealing with wrongdoing, the beginning is the revelation that something is wrong, out of place, upsetting the normal order of things, out of kilter with our knowledge, training, prior experience – and values. But what are the mechanisms by which this is made apparent?  As an individual, we are faced with the option of speaking up (whistleblowing), or passing it to someone else (leaking), or handing it across to someone who can determine whether there is more to it than our own suspicions lead us to believe. Whistleblowing involves a very personal consideration  - a risk assessment, which might or might not, end up in a decision to disclose.   Part of that disclosure process might well be that mitigation of any threat to life or livelihood prompts us to ‘leak’ the information to protect anonymity and thus lessen the likelihood of reprisals.   Part of the leaking process might involve contact with investigative journalists who then might be able to probe deeper and wider into the alleged acts and publicise both the wrongdoing and who might be culpable – and in so doing reduce the risk to the originating individual. 

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Stephen Holden

Stephen is a Lecturer in Law at De Montfort University and a PhD candidate at Manchester Law School. His doctoral research focused on whistleblowing and unauthorised disclosures in environments of secrecy and democratic accountability. He holds a Master’s degree in Law and Human Rights from the University of Kent and is a passionate researcher and advocate for change. Stephen, who serves as an Associate Editor of the Corporate Crime Observatory, is committed to exploring the intersections of corporate integrity, transparency, and accountability in both academic and practical contexts.

Unprotected Truths: The Tribunal System's Failure to Shield Whistleblowers

This presentation considers the multifaceted reasons why individuals often face unfavourable outcomes in Employment Tribunal proceedings in the United Kingdom following detriment suffered resultant of making a protected disclosure. Statistical data reveals that the overall success rate of claimants is low, with only around 2% of employment tribunal claims succeed in receiving a favourable decision at a full hearing, while many claims are withdrawn, dismissed, or settled before reaching court. Despite the tribunal's role in protecting workers' rights, procedural hurdles, evidentiary challenges, and substantive legal complexities can significantly hinder a claimant's success. This presentation will identify and address some of the various factors which contribute to such a low Tribunal success rate, before presenting opportunities for reform which have the potential to alleviate the evident disparity between the parties.

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Udoka Chimezie Ezeobi

Udoka C. Ezeobi is a Nigerian-trained lawyer with over 14 years of post-call experience in active private practice. He spent the last eight years as a Senior Associate at BKC Legal, a leading commercial law firm in Nigeria, before relocating to the UK in 2023 for his LL.M in International Business Law at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). In 2024, Udoka participated in a short-term research project funded by Manchester Law School aimed at exploring how unofficial disclosures can be transposed into criminal investigations.

The Impact of Investigative Journalists, Whistleblowers, and Leakers in Curbing Economic Crimes: Highlights from Select Scandals

Over the years, lapses in the role of regulatory authorities in addressing crimes have persisted. These lapses can be attributed to factors such as corruption, institutional capture, or lack of resources and capabilities by authorities. Efforts by investigative journalists, whistleblowers, and leakers have been instrumental in addressing these gaps, acting as watchdogs able to unveil otherwise hidden crimes and trigger responses from regulatory bodies and government officials. This presentation will focus on select scandals involving various forms of criminal activity, including economic crimes, cybercrimes, and terrorism. As will be discussed, these cases are notable for the volume of information accessed, the amounts of money involved, and the high-profile individuals implicated. The research is limited to scandals that occurred within the UK and Europe, or those that happened elsewhere but had significant impact within these jurisdictions.

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