Those potential whistleblowers watching for TARP waste, fraud and abuse should note today’s report of the Congressional Oversight Panel. According to the report, the Treasury Department has received “far less value in stocks and warrants than the money it injected into financial institutions.” The report, “Valuing Treasury Acquisitions,” concludes that…
When improprieties occur with hedge funds, the hedge funds’ lack of transparency and dearth of disclosure obligations make violations of the law difficult to uncover. Sometimes, persons in the hedge fund industry report those abuses through the IRS Whistleblower Program, as some of our IRS Whistleblower clients have done. Nonetheless,…
When the Wall Street “bailout” grew with Congress’ creation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Sen. Chuck Grassley emphasized the importance of “whistleblowers” and the False Claims Act to protecting these taxpayer funds from fraud and abuse. Tonight, the House added to the bailout by passing the economic stimulus…
Financial fraud is a frequent topic of whistleblower cases and of this whistleblower lawyer blog, especially with TARP and the Wall Street “bailout” dominating headlines. Senators Chuck Shumer and Richard Shelby have proposed a bipartisan bill to bolster federal resources to combat securities fraud and accounting fraud, the Supplemental Anti-Fraud…
As our government hemorrhages its taxpayers’ funds to “bail out” firms that made poor decisions–such as American International Group (AIG), Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and American Express–a just-issued report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) raises a disturbing question: have many of the same firms already been avoiding…
Offshore tax evasion and international tax avoidance schemes have been priorities of the IRS and its IRS Whistleblower Program, as our whistleblower lawyer blog has followed repeatedly. This week, the U.S. prosecution of the former head of UBS AG’s wealth management business, Raoul Weil, took a strange turn as he…
Continuing the “bailout,” the Treasury Department has just announced the release of $14.77 billion in TARP funds to what it refers to as 43 “local” banks (listed below). “Local” may be a misnomer, as the list includes $10 billion to Bank of America Corp., and more than $3 billion to…
The IRS Large and Midsize Business Division (LMSB) has published a new memorandum on how it will handle IRS Whistleblower claims, the process for citizens to report tax fraud, tax evasion, and other tax noncompliance–and share in the government’s recovery of money. (https://www.irs.gov/pub/foia/ig/lmsb/lmsb-4-1108-052.pdf). The LMSB Division has responsibility over corporations,…
As hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds flow to TARP bailout recipients, the government must make doubly sure to stop or minimize fraud and abuse in every federal program. One area that cries out for attention is the underpayment of royalties owed to the government under oil and gas leases.…
Much criticism has flowed from how the first $350 billion in TARP “bailout” funds are being used. Thus far, the need for additional restrictions to prevent and penalize fraud and abuse of TARP money remains unmet. In response, yesterday House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank proposed legislation establishing greater…