One thing that can happen in a whistle-blowing case that goes sideways is that you will get an energetic investigator or recipient of a disclosure who insists on bringing the issue forward for the discloser. Management may not like that, so they'll start taking action against the investigator or the recipient of the disclosure to try to shut them up. This is why you have to consider the people around the whistle-blower as well, because multiple points of pressure can be applied when making a reprisal.
On April 26th, 2023. See this statement in context.