In a major victory today for whistleblowers reporting fraud in the Iraq reconstruction effort, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial court’s decision that took away a jury verdict from the whistleblowers or relators in this qui tam case under the False Claims Act. The Custer Battles case…
Whistleblowers reporting fraud by contractors in Iraq reconstruction are coming forward, reports Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The relatively calmer conditions in Iraq apparently are a factor in more whistleblowers coming forward, he believes. From the $21 billion Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund, billions have been…
The facts about how the AIG Financial Products unit took down AIG begin to emerge more clearly, as AIG whistleblowers begin to speak. Former AIG auditor Joseph St. Denis described his concerns about AIG’s Financial Products unit–and how AIGFP’s Joseph Cassano refused to let him investigate: “Mr. Cassano shouted at…
I had the pleasure of seeing again and speaking last week with Harry Markopolis, the “whistleblower” now renowned for his excellent work in recognizing and reporting to the SEC that Bernie Madoff was running a huge Ponzi scheme. Harry was in Washington attending the “IRS Whistleblower Boot Camp” sponsored by…
I spent a very productive day today with IRS Whistleblower Office Director Steve Whitlock, former IRS Commissioner Margaret Richardson, IRS Special Counsel Tom Kane, and other senior IRS officials working with the IRS Whistleblower Office, in helping stage the most comprehensive legal education program yet about the new IRS Whistleblower…
Today, we were excited to hear that the Senate Judiciary Committee has sent long-needed amendments to the False Claims Act to the full Senate, as part of the “bailout” and “stimulus” inspired “Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act” (FERA). Where there are taxpayer funds being spent, there will be attempts to…
I am very excited about co-chairing the Annual “Whistleblower Law Symposium” once again this week. From Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, San Antonio, and Washington, D.C., many of the country’s leading attorneys in whistleblower cases under the “qui tam” statute, the False Claims Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley statute, and the IRS…
Off-shore tax evasion and international tax avoidance schemes are priorities of the IRS and the IRS Whistleblower program, which rewards tax whistleblowers. Our whistleblower lawyer blog has followed the ongoing investigation of UBS for its activities, which took a major turn today. Today, the government announced that UBS AG, Switzerland’s…
Hidden schemes to defraud Medicare and state Medicaid programs of scarce taxpayer dollars are at the heart of many whistleblower cases under the federal and state False Claims Acts. This morning, Wisconsin Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen announced that a Dane County, Wisconsin jury has just declared that a…
Taking a brief break from “substantive” writing on this whistleblower lawyer blog, I could not help but briefly note this story today: Filmmaker Michael Moore is seeking whistleblowers in the financial industry for his next film. He concludes “if you work for a bank, a brokerage firm or an insurance…