Jeffrey Wigand 'Whistle Blower" — Transcript

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1. 0:00Jeffrey Wigand was an American
2. 0:02biochemist whom worked for a large
3. 0:03tobacco company known as Brown &
4. 0:05Williamson his job assignment was high
5. 0:08up as he was the vice president of
6. 0:09research and development his main goal
7. 0:12was to create a reduced harm cigarette
8. 0:14this was all before he decided to blow
9. 0:16the whistle on February 4th 1996 he went
10. 0:20public and made an appearance on a
11. 0:21well-known TV show called 60 minutes he
12. 0:25was interviewed by Mike Wallace he
13. 0:27talked about how the company had been
14. 0:29manipulating the tobacco blend using
15. 0:30chemicals such as ammonia do it do what
16. 0:33they can to paint you as irresponsible a
17. 0:39liar what dick toured the news Mike is a
18. 0:42master of deceit you wish it hadn't come
19. 0:44forward he wish you hadn't blown the
20. 0:46whistle
21. 0:51there are times that we said there are
22. 0:54times that I feel compelled to do it
23. 1:02if you asked me if I would do it again
24. 1:04or said I think it's worth it yeah I
25. 1:08think it's worth it
26. 1:10I think in the end people will see the
27. 1:14truth the company and Wai ghin had a
28. 1:19meeting where they were supposed to
29. 1:20discuss twelve pages of minutes which
30. 1:22included the safe cigarette but a staff
31. 1:25attorney at Brown & Williamson Kendrick
32. 1:27was rewrote the minutes and only three
33. 1:29pages completely disregarding the
34. 1:31reduced harm cigarette this was because
35. 1:33it causes too much conflict with the
36. 1:35rest of their products in March 1993
37. 1:38shortly after the company brought in a
38. 1:41new CEO Thomas Sandefur I cam was let go
39. 1:44CEO Sandifer told him he was fired
40. 1:48because of lack of communication and he
41. 1:50just wasn't cutting it he believes that
42. 1:52he was fired because he had written a
43. 1:54memo for the files on the dangers of
44. 1:56coumarin which is made when glycerol is
45. 1:59burned in the company continued to put
46. 2:02glycerol into all of their cigarettes
47. 2:04there were many lawsuits throughout
48. 2:06everything the company had filed
49. 2:08lawsuits on mr. Wai ghin for breaking
50. 2:10his confidentiality agreement Wai ghin
51. 2:13paid dearly for going public admits
52. 2:16lawsuits countersuits in an exaustive
53. 2:18insult campaign orchestrated by the
54. 2:20company Wai ghin lost his family his
55. 2:23privacy in his reputation his wife then
56. 2:25divorced him and their two daughters
57. 2:27went to live with her since there were
58. 2:29threats on his life he had bodyguards
59. 2:31for almost six years before things
60. 2:34cooled down he was able to reconnect
61. 2:36with his daughters and almost live a
62. 2:37normal life from him coming out the
63. 2:40tobacco company took a huge hit he
64. 2:42delivered a damning testimony in a
65. 2:44Mississippi courtroom that of
66. 2:46led to the tobacco industries 246
67. 2:49billion dollar lawsuit settlement