An employee who's too honest

Paul-Édouard Prouvost offers an inside account of how he uncovered a system of international corruption—and why he decided to reveal everything.

He is neither a journalist nor an outside observer: he was at the heart of the system. As the head of risk and compliance at a multinational cybersecurity firm, he gradually uncovered corruption schemes deeply entrenched in international business practices: middlemen, bogus services, “marketing expenses,” shell companies, hidden funds, and questionable payments.

At first, he tried to change these practices from the inside. But he gradually realized that the abuses he was exposing were not isolated incidents: they were systemic. So he decided to speak out.

Under the framework established by the Sapin 2 Act, the facts he reported were forwarded to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office. They led to an investigation that culminated i