U.S. Government Awards over $22 Million to Monsanto Whistleblower, Activists Demand Same for Snowden and OthersBy Amando Flavio In February 2016, the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that the countrys agribusiness giant, Monsanto has agreed to pay $80 million penalty and retain an independent compliance consultant to settle charges. The SEC is an agency of the United States federal government. It holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws, proposing securities rules, and regulating the securities industry the countrys stock and options exchanges, among other functions. Monsanto admitted to violating accounting rules;it misstated company earningspertaining to its flagship herbicide product, Roundup. Reports suggestaformer employee of the company hadalerted the SEC investigators about Monsantos fraudulent conduct. Upon conducting their own investigations, the SECdiscoveredaMonsanto thathas insufficient internal accounting controls;unable toproperly account for millions of dollars in rebates offered to retailers and distributors of its herbicide Roundup, after generic competition had undercut Monsantos prices and resulted in a significant loss of market share. Monsanto reportedly paid the $80 million penalty to the SEC in late August, 2016. As part of the rules of the game, the SEC is supposed to settle the whistleblower with30% of the money collected from Monsanto. The SEC Office of the Whistleblower Program was created by Congress in 2011, to provide monetary incentives for individuals to come forward and report possible violations of the federal securities laws to the SEC. Under the program, whistleblowers are encouraged to report financial mishandlings of over $1 million. For their services, whistleblowers receive an award of up to 30% of the monetary sanctions collected by the government. The SEC officials have now announced officially an award of $22,437,800 to the whistleblower who leaked the fraud of Monsanto. SEC_News (@SEC_News) August 30, 2016 This is the second biggest payout in SEC history since the Whistleblower Program was created by Congress. In total, 33 whistleblowers have received more than $100 million since the Whistleblower Program was implemented. The whistleblowers, on the other hand, have helped the SEC investigators retrieve more than $504 million from corporations. The SEC officials have praised the efforts of the whistleblowers, revealing they have received more than 14,000 tips across the United States. SEC_News (@SEC_News) August 30, 2016 Acting chief of the SECs Office of the Whistleblower, Jane Norberg said without the courage and assistance of the whistleblowers, it would have been impossible for the SEC to find out the fraud being committed by corporations in the country. Monsanto have refused to comment on the settlement it made to the SEC, saying it would be inappropriate for the company to express judgment on the SECs whistleblower program. SEC_News (@SEC_News) August 30, 2016 Meanwhile, as the SEC is awarding whistleblowers for helping it to go after corporations, activists are also calling for the awardto be granted towhistleblowers who have exposed crimes committed by the United States government against citizens and other countries. Notable among these courageous whistleblowers include Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning) and Julian Assange. Mr Snowden worked for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency (NSA). In 2013, he copied and leaked classified information from the NSA, revealingmassive global surveillance programs being run by the United States government. Chelsea also worked as a soldier for United State Armed Forces. He disclosed to WikiLeaks led by Julian Assange nearly three-quarters of a million classified sensitive military and diplomatic documents. Mr Assange published these demining documents, allowing the world todiscover the crimes committed by the United States government. As we speak today, Snowden is seeking refuge in Russia, after being pursued by the United States government. Chelsea has been sentenced to 35 years in prison. Assange is still seeking asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. It is against this backdrop,that activists are calling for the freeing and awarding of these three courageous individuals, who have helped citizens of the United Statesrealize the crimes their government was, and still issecretly committing against them. After the SEC announced the monetary award for the Monsanto whistleblower, an activist wrote: Thinking the same thing. Assange cheque can be sent to Ecuadorian embassy, Snowdons [sic]to the Kremlin and Mannings to the new home in the Hamptons that US should provide as partial compensation. Another also said: Time to reward other whistle blowers like Julian Assange and Bradley Manning and put the real crooks behind bars. You want to support Anonymous Independent Investigative News? Please, follow us on Twitter:Follow @AnonymousNewsHQ This article (U.S. Government Awards over $22 million to Monsanto Whistleblower, selfnewss Demand Same for Snowden and Others) is afree and open source. You have permission to republish this article under aCreative Commonslicense with attribution to the author andAnonHQ.com. If you work for Monsatino, quit now. You are producing disease causing scum food. This corporation should be banned from the Earth. I am more concerned about Monsanto being given about the same privlidges as Hilary, they both seem to believe they are too big to fail. By the way, much of Europe and many other countries have banned this poison, so if you want to live without being poisoned and suffering all kinds of ailments, move there. The most corrupt, evil, mass murdering criminal profiteering from death and diseases corporation on this planet! 