Since the question is intentionally vague, I think there's one more angle that should be considered in the general case and that everyone missed: Can I actually bust my PhD adviser?

Let's be honest: Such deep level of cover-ups shows that entire operation is being conducted in a society that allows corruption, so it would be a bit naive to think it's only localized to academia.

Assuming you actually have sufficient evidence to incriminate the whole gang, can you be sure that someone is going to act on those evidence?
Are you sure that none of the implicated professors have a colleague from law school who just happens to be best friends with the persecutor to whom your case gets assigned to? Or judge? Can you be 100% sure that your case won't spend next XX years untouched at the bottom of the stack of the cases that need to be solved? If behavior you're describing is being tolerated by such large number of people, can you be 100% sure that there's absolutely no government backing in it? Are you sure that people controlling the grant money are as incompetent/naive as they look and are not in fact somehow taking a percentage of the grant money for themselves? We'll give you 100 million, but you'll give me 1 million!

To put is simply, I suspect that there could be a very serious danger that you could report this to the authorities, exposing yourself in that way and burning all bridges with your research community, and at the same time have authorities do absolutely nothing about it, other than perhaps persecuting you personally for your contribution to the plot. Such things can be common in societies with large levels of systematic corruption and in that case, by reporting the plot, you'd only exile yourself from academia. It could quite easily happen that in such case you may need to leave your country and start looking for work elsewhere.

Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be rocking the boat, I'm just trying to focus a little bit on the consequences part of the question. Make sure that you have a plan in place in case your attempt to expose the plot fails.

Many people recommended that you speak to a lawyer. Instead, I'll say: Try to find a good lawyer that specializes in corruption cases and can explain to you how exactly is it realistic for you to expose people and where you should report the fraud if it is in fact feasible to report it. Then find another lawyer with same qualifications and speak to him as well! Keep in mind that in busting your adviser, you'll be making a whole bunch of enemies, many of them of high rank, quite possibly for life. People say:"The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine." Even in the case that the rest of your society is not as corrupt as I fear it to be, what are you going to do while the case is being processed, which can easily take many years? Would you be able to eat and drink your honesty?

So once again, before you actually do anything, make sure you have plans in place so you are safe if it all backfires.

Since the question is intentionally vague, I think there's one more angle that should be considered in the general case and that everyone missed: Can I actually bust my PhD adviser?

Let's be honest: Such deep level of cover-ups shows that entire operation is being conducted in a society that allows corruption, so it would be a bit naive to think it's only localized to academia.

Assuming you actually have sufficient evidence to incriminate the whole gang, can you be sure that someone is going to act on those evidence? Are you sure that none of the implicated professors have a colleague from law school who just happens to be best friends with the prosecutor to whom your case gets assigned to? Or the judge? Can you be 100% sure that your case won't spend next XX years untouched at the bottom of the stack of the cases that need to be solved?

If the behavior you're describing is being tolerated by such large number of people, can you be 100% sure that there's absolutely no government backing in it? Are you sure that people controlling the grant money are as incompetent/naive as they look and are not in fact somehow taking a percentage of the grant money for themselves? We'll give you 100 million, but you'll give me 1 million!

To put is simply, I suspect that there could be a very serious danger that you could report this to the authorities, exposing yourself in that way and burning all bridges with your research community, and at the same time have authorities do absolutely nothing about it, other than perhaps prosecuting you personally for your contribution to the plot. Such things can be common in societies with large levels of systematic corruption and in that case, by reporting the plot, you'd only exile yourself from academia. It could quite easily happen that in such case you may need to leave your country and start looking for work elsewhere.

Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be rocking the boat, I'm just trying to focus a little bit on the consequences part of the question. Make sure that you have a plan in place in case your attempt to expose the plot fails.

Many people recommended that you speak to a lawyer. Instead, I'll say: Try to find a good lawyer that specializes in corruption cases and can explain to you how exactly is it realistic for you to expose people and where you should report the fraud if it is in fact feasible to report it. Then find another lawyer with same qualifications and speak to him as well! Keep in mind that in busting your adviser, you'll be making a whole bunch of enemies, many of them of high rank, quite possibly for life. People say: "The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine." Even in the case that the rest of your society is not as corrupt as I fear it to be, what are you going to do while the case is being processed, which can easily take many years? Would you be able to eat and drink your honesty?

So once again, before you actually do anything, make sure you have plans in place so you are safe if it all backfires.

Since the question is intentionally vague, I think there's one more angle that should be considered in the general case and that everyone missed: Can I actually bust my PhD adviser?

Let's be honest: Such deep level of cover-ups shows that entire operation is being conducted in a society that allows corruption, so it would be a bit naive to thing it's only localized to academia.

Assuming you actually have sufficient evidence to incriminate the whole gang, can you be sure that someone is going to act on those evidence?
Are you sure that none of the implicated professors have a colleague from law school who just happens to be best friends with the persecutor to whom your case gets assigned to? Or judge? Can you be 100% sure that your case won't spend next XX years untouched at the bottom of the stack of the cases that need to be solved? If behavior you're describing is being tolerated by such large number of people, can you be 100% sure that there's absolutely no government backing in it? Are you sure that people controlling the grant money are as incompetent/naive as they look and are not in fact somehow taking a percentage of the grant money for themselves? We'll give you 100 million, but you'll give me 1 million!

To put is simply, I suspect that there could be a very serious danger that you could report this to the authorities, exposing yourself in that way and burning all bridges with your research community, and at the same time have authorities do absolutely nothing about it, other than perhaps persecuting you personally for your contribution to the plot. Such things can be common in societies with large levels of systematic corruption and in that case, by reporting the plot, you'd only exile yourself from academia. It could quite easily happen that in such case you may need to leave your country and start looking for work elsewhere.

Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be rocking the boat, I'm just trying to focus a little bit on the consequences part of the question. Make sure that you have a plan in place in case your attempt to expose the plot fails.

Many people recommended that you speak to a lawyer. Instead, I'll say: Try to find a good lawyer that specializes in corruption cases and can explain to you how exactly is it realistic for you to expose people and where you should report the fraud if it is in fact feasible to report it. Then find another lawyer with same qualifications and speak to him as well! Keep in mind that busting your adviser, you'll be making a whole bunch of enemies, many of them of high rank, quite possibly for life. People say:"The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine." Even in the case that the rest of your society is not as corrupt as I fear it to be, what are you going to do while the case is being processed, which can easily take many years? Would you be able to eat and drink your honesty?

So once again, before you actually do anything, make sure you have plans in place so you are safe if it all backfires.

Since the question is intentionally vague, I think there's one more angle that should be considered in the general case and that everyone missed: Can I actually bust my PhD adviser?

Let's be honest: Such deep level of cover-ups shows that entire operation is being conducted in a society that allows corruption, so it would be a bit naive to think it's only localized to academia.

Assuming you actually have sufficient evidence to incriminate the whole gang, can you be sure that someone is going to act on those evidence?
Are you sure that none of the implicated professors have a colleague from law school who just happens to be best friends with the persecutor to whom your case gets assigned to? Or judge? Can you be 100% sure that your case won't spend next XX years untouched at the bottom of the stack of the cases that need to be solved? If behavior you're describing is being tolerated by such large number of people, can you be 100% sure that there's absolutely no government backing in it? Are you sure that people controlling the grant money are as incompetent/naive as they look and are not in fact somehow taking a percentage of the grant money for themselves? We'll give you 100 million, but you'll give me 1 million!

To put is simply, I suspect that there could be a very serious danger that you could report this to the authorities, exposing yourself in that way and burning all bridges with your research community, and at the same time have authorities do absolutely nothing about it, other than perhaps persecuting you personally for your contribution to the plot. Such things can be common in societies with large levels of systematic corruption and in that case, by reporting the plot, you'd only exile yourself from academia. It could quite easily happen that in such case you may need to leave your country and start looking for work elsewhere.

Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be rocking the boat, I'm just trying to focus a little bit on the consequences part of the question. Make sure that you have a plan in place in case your attempt to expose the plot fails.

Many people recommended that you speak to a lawyer. Instead, I'll say: Try to find a good lawyer that specializes in corruption cases and can explain to you how exactly is it realistic for you to expose people and where you should report the fraud if it is in fact feasible to report it. Then find another lawyer with same qualifications and speak to him as well! Keep in mind that in busting your adviser, you'll be making a whole bunch of enemies, many of them of high rank, quite possibly for life. People say:"The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine." Even in the case that the rest of your society is not as corrupt as I fear it to be, what are you going to do while the case is being processed, which can easily take many years? Would you be able to eat and drink your honesty?

So once again, before you actually do anything, make sure you have plans in place so you are safe if it all backfires.