<p>James Wasserstrom was the UN's top anti-corruption officer in Kosovo in 2007 when he warned his superiors about a lucrative kickback scheme linking UN officials to a local utility company. Wasserstrom took his complaint to the UN's oversight office. He was arrested, sacked from his job, investigated and treated like a pariah by an employer he had loyally served for three decades.</p><br />During his seven-year ordeal, Wasserstrom found UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "unhelpful". "I was informing him all long of what I though were missteps", he says, "and he didn’t intervene when he could". <br />But the US diplomat found a powerful ally in his own government. A bill passed by Congress in January forces the State Department to withdraw 15% of US funding from any UN agency that fails to establish protection for employees who expose corruption.<br /><br />Visit our website:<br />http://www.france24.com<br /><br />Like us on Facebook:<br />https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English<br /><br />Follow us on Twitter:<br />https://twitter.com/France24_en
