After meeting with the Department of Justice in Washington recently to discuss another whistleblower case, I picked up Harry Markopolos’ recent book, “No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller.” It is a fun and engrossing read, with humor that I did not expect to find in this subject. We…
The major new “health care” law that the President signed this week, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148), includes increased efforts to combat health care fraud and abuse, especially fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. It was significant that, on the very same day that…
Among the many 2009 changes to strengthen the False Claims Act is one whose impact is about to be experienced: greater use of “civil investigative demands” to gather evidence. Civil investigative demands allow to government to require any person believed to have documents or information relevant to a False Claims…
We have written previously about how the “Troubled Asset Relief Program” (TARP) that began with the financial meltdown in 2008 would undoubtedly beget fraud that may be actionable under the False Claims Act. The qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, the country’s major whistleblower law, allow whistleblowers (“relators”)…
As if the nation’s expenditures to rebuild Iraq were not enough, fraud that steals taxpayer dollars continues to infect the Iraq reconstruction program. This fraud often results in qui tam whistleblower cases under the False Claims Act, which allows those reporting the fraud to receive a a share of the…
One of the most interesting and challenging issues in representing IRS whistleblowers is how this promising new IRS Whistleblower Program can co-exist with the limits Congress has imposed on disclosure of taxpayer information–which includes what the IRS does in pursuing claims brought by whistleblowers. I wanted to pass along that…
We have written about the highly successful 2009 IRS Whistleblower Boot Camp in Washington, D.C. The IRS Whistleblower Office gathered with attorneys representing whistleblowers for this conference to discuss in detail many of the issues that arise in representing IRS whistleblowers, persons who report tax fraud or tax noncompliance. This…
The Justice Department has just announced that, to protect patients from harm in seven Georgia psychiatric hospitals, its Civil Rights Division has filed for relief including immediate appointment of a monitor to protect those patients. DOJ cited the threat to patients of “imminent and serious threat of harm to their…
Since Congress authorized new awards to IRS whistleblowers in December 2006, we have followed closely the progress of the new IRS Whistleblower Office led by Director Stephen Whitlock. IRS Whistleblower Office Director Stephen Whitlock has just announced that the IRS Whistleblower Office is preparing to make award determinations on whistleblower…
How does the IRS treat whistleblowers who receive awards under the False Claims Act’s “qui tam” provisions, which allow private citizens who expose fraud to share in the government’s recovery of money? The Tax Court this week addressed that question. It held that awards to whistleblowers or “relators” are part…