Does SEC Whistleblower Reward of $1 Million Signal A New Attitude Toward Wall Street Whistleblowing?
Only days after the new financial reform law created the first potentially meaningful awards for whistleblowers reporting securities and commodities violations and abuses, the SEC may have signaled a new attitude toward encouraging whistleblowers. The SEC recently announced its first million dollar award for a whistleblower’s report of information about insider trading involving hedge fund […]
International Tax Evasion Targeted by IRS Move to Revamp Its Large Business Division
To battle offshore tax abuses and other international tax fraud and tax evasion, the IRS has announced that it is “realigning” and renaming its Large and Mid-Size Business (LMSB) division. To reflect its new emphasis, it will known as the “Large Business and International” division (LB&I). As more transactions cross international borders, and more corporations […]
Offshore Tax Havens Face Increasing Scrutiny, With IRS Whistleblowers Assisting
“Offshore” accounts are an increasing priority of IRS enforcement, aided by the new IRS Whistleblower Program. The Offshore World has changed and will never be the same again. The traditional tax haven assurance of secrecy and anonymity won’t necessarily work any more. The US has concluded Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA’s) with a number of […]
How Whistleblower Lawyers Work Alongside Government Lawyers In Successful Qui Tam Cases Under the False Claims Act
When whistleblower attorneys bring a qui tam False Claims Act case, the most successful results usually occur when Government counsel and the whistleblower’s lawyers (Relator’s counsel) work together in what is known as the “public-private” partnership model. This approach to qui tam cases allows the government to leverage its limited resources by calling on the […]
New Rewards for Whistleblowers Reporting Bribery of Foreign Government Officials, Corporate Fraud In Foreign Government Contracts
When the President signed the new financial reform bill into law today, new whistleblower provisions quietly took effect to battle corruption, bribery, and corporate fraud to obtain foreign government contracts. This new law creates the new SEC whistleblower program that we have followed since its gestation after the Madoff scandal broke. The SEC and the […]
Whistleblowers Reporting Derivatives Fraud? Whistleblower Incentives Must Be Paid by CFTC Under New Financial Reform Bill
The new financial reform bill that awaits the President’s signature this week has something important for potential whistleblowers with knowledge of fraud in options, futures, derivatives and other financial products within the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The bill will modify the Commodity Exchange Act to provide whistleblower rewards and protections. Similar […]
New SEC Whistleblower Program Approved by Senate in Financial Reform Bill
Since the SEC refused for years to heed Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolis’ warnings that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, we have followed with great interest the efforts of those who sought to create the first meaningful SEC whistleblower program. The Senate this week took an important step by authorizing a new SEC whistleblower program–one […]
New IRS Procedures for Whistleblowers Should Encourage More Significant IRS Whistleblower Claims
This morning’s Washington Post quotes me, among others, in criticizing one aspect of the new procedures for IRS whistleblowers recently published in the Internal Revenue Manual. That one glaring defect aside, the new IRM procedures are welcome news that should encourage more IRS whistleblowers to come forward. Today’s Post article by David Hilzenrath on the […]
TARP Fraud and Other Violations Alleged by SEC Against Chairman of Major Mortgage Lender
As we have written previously, the billions of “bailout” dollars to financial institutions through the TARP program inevitably would result in many fraud cases, including some by TARP whistleblowers. Today, the SEC announced allegations of TARP fraud and securities fraud of more than $1.5 billion other violations against Lee B. Farkas, through his company Taylor, […]
New IRS Whistleblower Claim Procedures for Determining Awards to Whistleblowers Announced
Today the long-awaited IRS Whistleblower Office procedures for determining awards to tax whistleblowers were announced in an update to the Internal Revenue Manual. The new provisions for IRS Whistleblower claims address many details of how tax whistleblower claims will be handled. The full provisions are reprinted below: Part 25. Special Topics Chapter 2. Information and […]