Firms more motivated to blow the whistle

The investigation currently taking place at Renault signals a sign of caution for certain U.S. businesses to be more aggressive in pursuing tip-offs from whistleblowers.

There are two major takeaway points from the investigation: internal investigations take time and patience, and don't hesitate to consult with the top lawyers to help.

"Renault is the poster child for why you want to approach these situations with a sense of balance, and not have people rush to judgment," said the chief legal officer at logistics and auto transport provider Ryder System Inc.

The epic story involving the Euro automaker started after several top Renault managers were given an anonymous tip that pointed the finger at a senior executive for bribe negotiations.

Proceed a lengthy investigation, Renault let go of the executive as well as two other supervisors. The dismissed employees stressed their innocence, yet the CEO of Renault, Carlos Ghosn, announced that the company had legitimate evidence against their plea.

However, over the past couple months, Renault has been unsuccessful in obtaining any evidence against the trio.

The COO of the company said Renault may have been "tricked" into filing the allegations against the employees. Individuals who are familiar with the matter said French police took the two managers from company's security department into questioning. The two employees were currently overseeing Renault's internal corporate-espionage probe. The company is now preparing to exonerate the three managers for lack of evidence.

Several companies are adopting workplace compliance training programs to overcome such issues in the workplace.

The incident has served as a major wake-up call for corporate-compliance officers. Experts claim that the case will further increase the scrutiny among corporate America and how it handles anonymous tips from whistleblowers.

"More U.S. companies will take a closer look at their internal investigation and compliance systems," predicted CEO of Boundless LLC, an internal auditing and risk-advisory company.

Over the past decade, such companies have taken advantage of workplace management software to improve oversight over such issues.

Set in 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley law required publicly held companies to establish, for the first time, processes to deal with matters of whistleblowers. Last year Congress passed the Dodd-Frank law, which offers incentives for employees to whistle-blow on actions involving securities fraud and other wrongdoing. As a result, employers and others in recent years have generated millions of dollars in rewards for blowing the whistle on fraudulent activity by the U.S. government.

Some top attorneys keeping a close eye on the investigation claim that in some circumstances the incentives can be taken to far. More and more "companies are getting paranoid," said an Tuscon employment defense lawyer.

Many experts believe the risks associated with taking action too soon can outweigh the risks to of delaying action. "By ending an investigation prematurely, you run the risk of a frivolous issue going public too soon," said Ryder's Mr. Fatovic. "The stock gets hit, you invite shareholder lawsuits, you put out more disclosures. It's a tripwire."

Also in agreement is the chief ethics officer at Best Buy Co. She said the retailer is currently diving into allegations of financial fraud among one of its employees overseas. Because of the nature of the allegations, Best Buy Co. can afford to take its time and conduct the investigation thoroughly.

At the same time, the Best Buy ethics officer mentioned that following up on a whistleblower tip is more of an art than a science. "When do you keep going and when do you pull the plug [on an investigation]?" she asked. "It's very hard to know a lot of the time."