Whistleblowers

Giles Tremlett – April 26, 2013

When he appeared in a Madrid court, banking whistleblower Hervé Falciani was disguised with a wig and thick-framed glasses. Facing extradition, the man behind the "Lagarde list" of potential tax cheats said in a newspaper interview he had fled to Spain last year when the US authorities told him it was the only country in Europe where his life would not be in danger.

Now Falciani, 41, whose spectacular theft of account data from a Swiss subsidiary of HSBC in 2006-7 has helped uncover thousands of wealthy tax fraudsters, is about to find out if he will be extradited to Switzerland, where he faces prosecution and up to seven years in jail.

Adam Sherwin – April 5, 2013

Her minions at Australian Vogue called her “the Devil wears Witchery”. Anna Wintour “never gave her the time of day”. She must be a “bitter” ex-employee, out for revenge. Now Kirstie Clements, one of the industry's most influential figures, is steeled for the worst the fashion world can throw at her after she revealed the shocking lengths to which models will go to remain catwalk-thin.

Clements, who was sacked as editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia last May after 25 years with the magazine, has become the “Bradley Manning of the fashion world” after publishing a scathing inside account of a business in which the pressure to stay thin is so intense that some models eat tissues to stave off hunger pangs.

Nanette Byrnes – April 9, 2013

Seven years after Congress passed a new whistleblower law for the Internal Revenue Service, the tax-collecting agency stands accused of not doing enough, or of not acting swiftly enough, to reward informants who expose tax improprieties.

On Wednesday, under growing pressure from the senator who spearheaded the 2006 legislation, the IRS holds a hearing on proposals it has crafted only now for implementing elements of the law.