NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Stacey Vannick Smith.

Companies are at the heart of the US economy.

They are the engines that make it go.

Create jobs, generate wealth, innovation.

But of course, companies need rules.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is one of the main organizations in charge of making

sure companies follow those rules and punishing those that don't.

But the SEC is not a giant agency and there are millions of businesses in the US.

So one key tool for regulators is the whistleblower.

That is a company insider who knows what's really going on, who's involved and where the

evidence is.

Still, being a whistleblower is not always easy.

There are huge risks.

Jordan Thomas used to work for the SEC and while he was there, he got really interested

in the role of the whistleblower in policing companies.

And he wanted to find a way to make it easier for workers to come forward and to get rewarded

for whistleblowing.

So he started SEC whistleblower advocates and he has focused his career on helping whistleblowers

come forward and work with government agencies to stop corporate wrongdoing.

A conversation with Jordan Thomas after the break.

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