Cambridge Analytica whistleblower's book deal recalls earlier scandals -- and the people who exposed them
Christopher Wylie, a former research director at Cambridge Analytica, has a book that will be published on Oct. 8 by Random House entitled "Mindf(asterisk)ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America," the publishing firm announced Monday.
The book delves into Wylie's allegations that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting company, improperly obtained the information of Facebook users for the purposes of helping Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
FOX Business took a look at five of the most famous whistleblowers of all-time.
KAREN SILKWOOD: Silkwood was a technician at Kerr-McGee in Oklahoma, where she worked with plutonium. She began to have concerns about the health consequences of her job. It was later determined that she had been exposed to radiation poisoning. She died in a car crash under suspicious circumstances. She was portrayed by Meryl Streep in the 1983 movie "Silkwood." For her role, Streep was nominated for an Oscar.
MARK WHITACRE: He was an executive at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) who blew the whistle about price-fixing at the company -- and worked with the FBI for years in order to do so -- in the early-to-mid-1990s. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to serious financial charges -- including wire fraud, money laundering, filing false income tax returns, among others (which took place at the same time that he was engaged in the whistleblowing) and was sentenced to 10-plus years in prison.
Mark Whitacre, former Archer Daniels Midland executive and self-proclaimed investigator. (Photo by Ken Schles/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images)
JEFFREY WIGAND: He was an executive at tobacco company Brown & Williamson. In 1996, three years after being dismissed from the firm, he appeared on CBS' "60 Minutes" to blow the whistle regarding what he knew about Brown & Williamson putting additives in cigarettes (which made them more dangerous and more addictive). Later, he was portrayed by Russell Crowe, who was nominated for an Oscar, in the 1999 movie "The Insider."
N363239 01: Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, a former research director for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. and the subject of the Touchstone Pictures film, "The Insider." (Photo by John T. Barr)
SHERRON WATKINS: In 2002, she testified in front of congressional committees regarding what she knew about Enron executives dismissing concerns she had raised, as a vice president of corporate development, about strange accounting practices. The $63 billion company collapsed in 2001, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at the time. As a result of Watkins' efforts, she was chosen as one of three people on the cover of Time Magazine's Person(s) of The Year for 2002.
UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 15: The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investment had a hearing on the collapse of Enron with 'whistle blower' Sherron Watkins testifying. Here Ms. Watkins answers questions. At right is her lawyer Philip Hilder. At cent
HARRY MARKOPOLOS: Several times, in the early to mid-2000s, using his background as a forensic accounting investigator and a former executive, Markopolos told the Securities and Exchange Commission that then highly-esteemed money manager Bernie Madoff was cooking his books. The SEC largely disregarded his concerns, as he later wrote in his book "No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller." In 2008, Madoff's sons informed the FBI that their father had confessed to them he was running a Ponzi scheme after he was unable to meet the demands of investors attempting to withdraw about $7 billion in holdings during the height of the financial crisis. The scandal was one of the biggest in U.S. financial history.
WASHINGTON - FEBRUARY 04: Harry Markopolos holds up a book while testifying during a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in February 2009. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.