If you use Bash then you can access the pipe return code using the array PIPESTATUS, recent Korn shell version support one called 'pipefail'
With enough /bin/sh file descriptor fu, this can even be done using an ancient Bourne shell, as demonstrated by Tom Christiansen in a famous 1996 post, Csh Programming Considered Harmful. For example: 
exec 3>&1
rc=`(($SOME_COMMAND 2>&1 3>&- 4>&-;echo $? 1>&4) | tee -a $LogFile 1>&
+3 3>&- 4>&-) 4>&1`
exec 3>&-
# $rc has the return code of $SOME_COMMAND.

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In reply to Re^2: Check system return codes by eyepopslikeamosquito
in thread Check system return codes by Noame

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