2026 Speakers

Foldy is an investigative reporter at ProPublica specializing in finance, business, and power. He previously spent seven years at The Wall Street Journal, where he investigated subjects including surrogacy, sanctions evasion, cryptocurrency, financial crime, and the 2023 banking crisis. He also reported and hosted a season of Bad Bets, the Journal’s financial crime podcast. 

A two-time Gerald Loeb Award finalist, Foldy’s work has also been recognized by the New York and National Press Clubs. He is currently writing a book about Hindenburg Research and its impact as an investigative short-selling firm. 

Carrie Johnson is NPR’s National Justice Correspondent, covering the Justice Department, law enforcement, courts, and major legal affairs for NPR’s flagship programs, newscasts, podcasts, and NPR.org. Her reporting focuses on some of the country’s most consequential legal and political developments, including federal investigations, criminal justice issues, civil rights enforcement, and the work of the Department of Justice. 

Before joining NPR, Johnson spent 10 years at The Washington Post, where she reported on the FBI, the Justice Department, and major criminal trials. Earlier in her career, she covered courts for Legal Times. Her work has been recognized by organizations including the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, the Society of Professional Journalists, SABEW, and the National Juvenile Defender Center. She has also been a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award and for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news.

David Finlay will speak on behalf of His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the United Kingdom’s tax and customs authority. Drawing on extensive experience in public-sector oversight and government accountability, he will discuss HMRC’s new Strengthened Reward Scheme for whistleblowers. The initiative is designed to encourage individuals with valuable information about serious tax avoidance or evasion to come forward, helping HMRC uncover misconduct, recover public funds, and strengthen enforcement.

Desiree Fixler is a sustainable finance expert and internationally recognized whistleblower who formerly served as Group Sustainability Officer at DWS Group, the asset-management arm of Deutsche Bank. In 2021, she raised concerns that DWS had overstated how deeply environmental, social, and governance criteria were integrated into its investment process, allegations that helped spark investigations in the United States and Germany. 

The case became one of the most prominent greenwashing scandals in global finance. In 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fined DWS $19 million over misstatements related to its ESG investment process, part of a broader $25 million settlement that also included anti-money-laundering violations. Despite Fixler’s central role in exposing the alleged misconduct and assisting regulators, Fixler was denied an SEC whistleblower award. She is now challenging that denial in federal court, arguing that the SEC’s decision undermines the purpose of its whistleblower program and could discourage future insiders from coming forward. 

Devin Gould serves as Senior Policy Advisor & Deputy Legislative Director in Sen. John Fetterman’s office, covering banking, crypto, tax, small business, and retirement policy. Sen. Fetterman is the senior United States Senator from Pennsylvania, having taken office in 2023. He previously served as Pennsylvania’s 34th Lieutenant Governor and as the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Sen. Fetterman serves on the Agriculture Committee, Commerce Committee, and Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee. He co-sponsored the bipartisan CFTC Whistleblower Fund Improvement Act and pushed for the full implementation of the anti-money-laundering whistleblower program administered by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Dr. Tommie “Toni” Savage is an Army Corps of Engineers whistleblower who spoke out against government contracting fraud in the “Ranges Program.” While working as an awarded and highly esteemed Contracting Officer at the agency’s Huntsville, Alabama Contracting Division, Toni discovered millions of dollars in fraudulent contracts. Toni overcame severe, debilitating retaliation for speaking out, despite her allegations being confirmed by multiple internal and external audits.

Toni secured a landmark victory when the Merit Systems Protection Board (“MSPB”) ruled in her favor, setting the precedent that federal whistleblowers can raise hostile work environment claims. Toni sacrificed her career and her health to speak truth to power. Her strength, determination, and perseverance are an inspiration, but also a stark reminder of how whistleblowers urgently need stronger protections.

Toni has served as an advisory member to National Whistleblower Center’s National Whistleblower Day committee. In 2017, Toni spoke at NWC’s National Whistleblower Day celebration on Capitol Hill, sharing her story.  She spoke again in 2023 after she and attorney, Michael Kohn, successfully negotiated a settlement.

In 2025, Toni joined NWC’s Board of Directors. She is also the President and Founder of Daughter of Zion Ministries, Inc.

Erick Martinez serves as Director of the IRS Whistleblower Office, which administers the IRS Whistleblower Program. The program allows individuals to report tax fraud, underpayment, and other violations of federal tax law, and provides monetary awards when whistleblower information leads to the collection of taxes, penalties, interest, or other proceeds. Under his leadership, the Office plays a central role in encouraging insiders and other knowledgeable individuals to come forward with information that helps protect the integrity of the tax system and recover funds owed to the United States. 

Jane Turner was a highly decorated, 25-year veteran Special Agent with the FBI. She served in the most difficult investigatory positions and was the first woman named as the head of an FBI resident agency.

She led the FBI’s highly successful programs combating crimes against women and child sex crime victims on North Dakota Indian Reservations. In retaliation for exposing FBI failures within its child crime program, Turner was removed from senior resident agent position. Turner successfully fought her removal and won a historic victory for all FBI whistleblowers before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She challenged her retaliation in federal court, and won a unanimous jury verdict in her favor, obtaining the largest compensatory damage award permitted under the law for federal employees.

Jane also exposed criminal theft of property at the 9/11 crime scene by a handful of FBI agents. She was harshly retaliated against for reporting these violations to the Department of Justice, Inspector General. After a ten-year battle, she prevailed, becoming only one of a small handful of FBI agents to win her cases under the FBI Whistleblower Protection Act.

Jeana Lee is the Program Manager at the National Whistleblower Center. She leads NWC’s policy advocacy for greater legal protections for whistleblowers and runs the international campaign to educate governments and NGOs around the world about the importance of transnational whistleblower laws in combating corruption. 

Jeana is also an Assistant News Editor at Whistleblower Network News, where she coordinates and covers news on whistleblower policies and international anti-corruption. She has written pieces on legal and international issues regarding whistleblowing for the National Law Review and the Oxford Business Law Blog. 

Prior to her role as Program Manager, Jeana was a Communications Intern at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), where she helped communicate the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate change agenda to the public. She studied Political Science at the University of California Berkeley.

John Kiriakou is a former CIA officer, author, and internationally recognized whistleblower who exposed the CIA’s use of torture during the war on terror. During his CIA career, he served as an analyst and counterterrorism operations officer, including as Chief of Counterterrorist Operations in Pakistan after the September 11 attacks. 

In 2007, Kiriakou became the first U.S. government official to publicly confirm that waterboarding had been used against detainees at CIA black sites. He was later prosecuted for disclosing classified information to a reporter and served nearly two years in prison. Since his release, Kiriakou has become a prominent advocate on issues including whistleblower protection, torture, civil liberties, prison reform, and government accountability. He is the author of several books and has received major honors for his whistleblowing and defense of civil liberties, including the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage, the Sam Adams Award, and the PEN First Amendment Award.

North America Editor, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project 

Kevin Hall joined OCCRP in 2021 as North America editor, overseeing investigations in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. He previously spent nearly 22 years at McClatchy and the Miami Herald, where he worked as South America bureau chief, chief economics correspondent, and senior investigative reporter. Hall has reported extensively on corruption, financial misconduct, labor abuses, and international affairs. His work has earned major honors, including a Sigma Delta Xi Award, a Pulitzer finalist recognition for reporting on the U.S. financial crisis, and a shared 2017 Pulitzer Prize as a lead U.S. partner in the Panama Papers.  

Oishika Neogi is a New York-based investigative reporter covering the criminal justice system, prisons, and official misconduct. She has reported for outlets including Mother Jones, New York Focus, Documented and The New York Times. She is also a special correspondent for The Florida Trib, where she is working on a series on in-custody jail deaths in Florida. 

Neogi was previously a fellow with Columbia Journalism Investigations, where she reported on prosecutorial misconduct and wrongful convictions. Before moving to New York, she worked as an independent journalist in New Delhi and collaborated with outlets including Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Forbidden Stories, Al Jazeera, and independent news organizations in India. 

Raagnee Beri serves as Director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Whistleblower Office, which administers the CFTC’s program for individuals who report possible violations of the Commodity Exchange Act. The program provides monetary awards to eligible whistleblowers whose information leads to successful enforcement actions and offers protections against retaliation. In this role, Beri leads an office that plays an important part in supporting the CFTC’s enforcement mission and encouraging individuals to come forward with information about misconduct in the commodities and derivatives markets.  

She previously served as a trial attorney in the Division of Enforcement and as a senior assistant general counsel in the Office of the General Counsel’s Litigation Branch, where she handled whistleblower appeal litigation and matters involving the Commodity Exchange Act. Before joining the CFTC, she worked as a trial attorney at the Department of Justice Tax Division and clerked for courts in Indiana and Washington, D.C. 

Robert J. MacLean is a former U.S. Federal Air Marshal, U.S. Border Patrol agent, Air Force veteran, and nationally recognized whistleblower. After joining the Federal Air Marshal Service in the wake of the September 11 attacks, MacLean raised concerns about a TSA plan to remove air marshals from certain long-distance flights, which he believed would compromise aviation security. 

After disclosing his concerns, MacLean was fired by TSA, leading to a years-long legal battle over federal whistleblower protections. His case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor and allowed him to pursue a whistleblower defense. MacLean was later reinstated, and his case set a crucial precedent for federal employees who disclose threats to public safety. 

Rosemary Dew is a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent, author, and whistleblower advocate. One of the first hundred women to join the FBI, Dew has spoken publicly about the Bureau’s treatment of whistleblowers and the challenges faced by women in federal law enforcement. 

She is the author of Your FBI: How the FBI Suppresses Whistleblowers to Hide FBI Scandals and Crimes, which highlights the experiences of FBI whistleblowers who reported misconduct and faced retaliation. Dew has continued to use her platform to advocate for accountability, transparency, and stronger protections for those who expose wrongdoing inside federal agencies.

Sarah Carver and Jennifer Griffith were working as paralegals at a U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) field office when they unearthed a $550 million scheme by a disability lawyer and administrative law judge to defraud the SSA. Carver and Griffith blew the whistle to their supervisors and Congressional representatives, and to the news media, and were called to testify before the U.S. Senate in 2013. While the perpetrators of the fraud were eventually convicted, Carver and Griffith faced continued retaliation at their SSA office that eventually led them to leave their posts. Their stories have been featured in the AppleTV documentary The Big Conn, and they received the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ Sentinel Award in 2024 for their work in exposing the scheme. 

Chuck Grassley was first elected to the Iowa state legislature in 1958 and served there until Iowans sent him to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974. In 1980, Grassley was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he has developed a reputation for bipartisanship and pragmatism. This approach to legislating consistently earns Grassley high marks as one of the Senate’s most effective and collaborative lawmakers. In each post, serving Iowans has always been Grassley’s guiding light and primary objective. Over the course of his time in Congress, Senator Grassley has led the effort to protect and empower whistleblowers through strong legislation meant to encourage whistleblowing and protect whistleblowers from retaliation. He is also a founding member and current Chairman of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus.

U.S. Senator James Lankford has represented Oklahoma in the Senate since 2015, following four years in the U.S. House of Representatives. A longtime advocate for government accountability, Senator Lankford has co-led bipartisan legislation strengthening protections and due-process rights for federal employees who report nuclear-safety violations. He has also defended public servants’ right to disclose wrongdoing directly to Congress and inspectors general, challenged agency policies that could obstruct protected disclosures, and repeatedly supported National Whistleblower Day. His work recognizes whistleblowers as essential partners in exposing misconduct, protecting the public, and ensuring that federal agencies operate transparently and lawfully.

Ron Wyden began his political career in Congress in 1981 as a representative and became Senator in a 1996 special election. He serves on the Committees on Finance, Budget, Intelligence, and Energy & Natural Resources. He is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a senior member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He is a founding member and Co-Chair of the Senate Whistleblower Caucus. Wyden has shown strong support for whistleblowers throughout his time as a legislator.

Thomas A. Drake is a former senior executive at the National Security Agency, decorated U.S. Air Force and Navy veteran, and internationally recognized whistleblower. At the NSA, Drake raised concerns about waste, mismanagement, and surveillance practices connected to the agency’s Trailblazer program, which he believed was costly, ineffective, and harmful to civil liberties. 

After using internal reporting channels, Drake became the subject of a major federal leak investigation and was indicted under the Espionage Act. The government ultimately dropped all 10 original charges, and Drake pleaded to a misdemeanor count. Since then, he has become a prominent advocate for privacy, government accountability, and whistleblower protections. His courage has been recognized with honors including the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling, the Sam Adams Award, and the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award. 

Will Kramer is a partner at Pines Bach LLP, a former investigator for a Senate oversight committee, and a whistleblower-turned-whistleblower attorney. After documenting improper handling and disposal of hazardous waste at barrel reconditioning plants while working as an occupational health and safety consultant, Kramer made the courageous decision to report his concerns to government regulators, Congress, and the news media. Kramer worked closely with the media and investigators, which led to a nationwide multi-agency investigation and millions of dollars in fines. Today, Kramer draws on his experience to develop strategies for the whistleblowers and labor unions he represents in his legal practice.

Zefrey Throwell is an award-winning director and artist who has shown at Cannes, Tribeca, SXSW, Venice Biennale, MoMA, and The Whitney. He is currently directing a feature documentary on FBI whistleblower Jane Turner, whose fight to expose the Bureau’s failures made her one of the country’s most consequential truth-tellers. Variety said of his last film, The Oxy Kingpins, “It could be a Martin Scorsese movie. It’s the Wolf of Wall Street meets The Insider.” He has also worked with TYT for several years, on the road filming with Sen. Sanders and Pres. Trump, documenting the rise of socialism and the far right in America for an upcoming television series.