I would guess that the whistleblower was employed by the church directly or via a subsidiary. Knowing many people who work for the Mormon church, it is likely the whistleblower lost their job and their pension.
You will lose your job and pension if you stop regularly attending church services or giving 10% of your paycheck back to the church ('tithing'). I can't imagine they don't take a harder approach to this. To be clear, it is wrong to retaliate against whistleblowers, but large organizations get away with it a lot.
I've been around the Church for a long time (and interacted a very little bit with senior leaders), and was a Church employee before health issues ended that. I very highly doubt that anyone "will lose your ... pension if you stop regularly attending church services or giving 10% of your paycheck back to the church".
But job, yes. They want people who are devoted, if they are going to pay them to further the work. To me that makes perfect sense.
(Thoughtful comments appreciated with downvotes; thanks.)
You can check on the SEC homepage if their is a corresponding whistleblower award. Could be as high as 1.5 million, which is not nothing but still less than one would have assumed.
You will lose your job and pension if you stop regularly attending church services or giving 10% of your paycheck back to the church ('tithing'). I can't imagine they don't take a harder approach to this. To be clear, it is wrong to retaliate against whistleblowers, but large organizations get away with it a lot.