Tallahassee, 1988: Michael Wynn is hired as an investigator by the Florida Department of Revenue. It isn't his ideal work situation, but his wife is pregnant, so he needs a job. Besides, he's certainly qualified, having experience in criminology and specifically in financial investigations.
Soon thereafter, Wynn's boss orders him to investigate a local businessman. Why? He's a gun-runner for the Mafia, says the boss. O-o-kay, says Wynn, and begins the investigation. He finds that the businessman is not a gun-runner for the Mafia or anyone else. His boss then claims that the businessman is a dealer in child pornography and orders another investigation. Wynn checks that out and again, there's not a scintilla of evidence to support the accusation. But one thing the businessman is doing, is running for public office against an associate of the boss's husband. Whoops.
Wynn goes to his bureau chiefs and places his findings in front of them. "If this is a private investigation at the State's expense," he says, "it's illegal, and I don't want any part of it."
One of those people, the division director, reports to Wynn's boss and is immediately fired. Wynn then contacts both Democrats and Republicans in the Florida State Cabinet, invokes Florida's Whistleblower Act to protect his name, and tells what he knows. His name is leaked by someone who later is appointed head of the Department of Revenue.
And now comes the bane of all whistle-blowers: harassment. An assistant to his boss sits in a car outside Wynn's house; when Wynn approaches the car, it takes off. Wynn opens his front door to find a snake with a noose around its neck. At work, things deteriorate rapidly. He's reassigned to the "audit squad" and given absolutely nothing to do. His computer is disassembled before his eyes and taken away. He's interrogated by Department officials two or three times a day—why, no one seems to know.
He manages to initiate some legitimate investigations on his own, one of which actually does lead to the imprisonment of a real estate developer with connections to a Philadelphia crime family. But it doesn't help his work situation. In 1991, he goes to court seeking an injunction to stop the harassment and protect his job. He remembers, "They just wanted me gone."
And they succeed. Even though his boss is jailed for backdating memos in an effort to claim innocence on a variety of charges, the harassment continues and even intensifies. Wynn is still unable to obtain the injunction, and, in 1995, he's fired. The Whistleblower Act has not protected Michael Wynn. He urges that the act be investigated by a nonprofit organization with no ties to the state government.
Wynn is still fighting his firing in court. He's lost his job, he's lost a great deal of money, and his blood pressure has soared. He now works out of his home helping others expose government corruption. He's also contemplating starting a window-cleaning business.
Update:
Michael Wynn finally settled out of court with the Florida Department of Revenue, but he never got his job back, or anything similar—not with his whistleblower reputation. "In those days," he says, "I couldn't have gotten a job if I'd paid somebody." He lost his retirement and his health insurance, too.
However, he did well enough in his commercial window-cleaning business. After his wife died, Wynn started selling cars and taking on various other jobs, including conducting private investigations. He does offer free counseling to those contemplating or following through with whistle-blowing.
His main message to would-be whistleblowers? "Being a whistleblower is your last resort." He knows only too well what can happen to your life when you step forward to right a wrong. He knows how the constant barrage of negativity can even affect your sense of self: "They're going to tell you you're not who you think in your mind you are. . . . Most people do (walk away), and quite frankly I don't blame them. Because it's not worth it in a way."
Of course, all that's balanced by a respect for the truth: "I kind of didn't have a choice," he says.
Wynn said of his commendation as a Giraffe Hero, "Being named a Giraffe has been the single most morally uplifting event for me and my family—a single beam of light in a forest of negatives."