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This is Part II of this whistleblower lawyer blog’s description of how IRS Tax Whistleblower officials have explained many of the long-awaited details of the new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program to whistleblower attorneys at the annual Taxpayers Against Fraud Conference in Washington, a national organization of whistleblower lawyers who represent whistleblowers under the False Claims Act, the state False Claims Acts, and the new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program for tax whistleblowers. Both parts summarize information provided by IRS Whistleblower officials at this Conference, at which I had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion with the Director of the IRS Whistleblower Office, Stephen Whitlock, and later spending time with other IRS officials from the IRS group responsible for the Financial Services industry (including hedge funds), Large and Mid-Sized Business Division, Stuart Mann and Nicole Cammarota.

The investigation of matters submitted by whistleblowers will be handled not by the Whistleblower Office, but by other IRS officials–in the field. The Whistleblower Office will initially perform a screening function at the beginning of the process, with “classifiers” reviewing the claim submissions and directing them to the appropriate persons within the IRS for investigation, if an investigation is warranted.

If an investigation results, and the government recovers funds (tax liability, interest, penalties, or other amounts), Director Whitlock then will determine the amount of any award to the whistleblower or whistleblowers. The new statute allows the whistleblower to appeal any determinations to the Tax Court to review decisions about rewards.

The threshold question for persons seeking to submit IRS Whistleblower claims is to demonstrate plainly to the IRS why–with so many potential matters that the IRS already has to investigate, and with limited resources–pursuing an investigation suggested by an informant is the best use of the IRS’ limited resources. Not all potential tax violations can be investigated–or will be investigated–by the IRS. Thus, the challenge is to present a whistleblower claim that the IRS will decide to pursue–and pursue vigorously.
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IRS officials explained long-awaited details of how the new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program will work to whistleblower attorneys gathered last week at the annual Taxpayers Against Fraud Conference in Washington.

This whistleblower lawyer blog author had the pleasure of appearing with the Director of the new IRS Whistleblower Office, Stephen Whitlock, in a panel discussion on the new IRS Whistleblower Program. I enjoyed spending time with Director Whitlock and with the other participants, Professor Dennis Ventry of American University’s Washington College of Law, and attorneys Erika Kelton and Paul Scott. (Paul Scott, our moderator, deserves special thanks put putting together an extremely useful and informative program).

Later, before a second IRS Whistleblower presentation, I enjoyed having lunch and a long discussion of the particulars of the new IRS Whistleblower Program with two other IRS officials: Stuart Mann, one of the lead IRS officials with responsibility over the Financial Services industry, Large and Mid-Size Business Division (LMSB), which includes corporations, subchapter S corporations, and partnerships with assets greater than $10 million; and Nicole Cammarota, who is also with the IRS LMSB Division and who I understand is working on the new IRS Whistleblower regulations.

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Some of the country’s leading attorneys in qui tam whistleblower cases and IRS Whistleblower cases will gather for the “First Annual Whistleblower Law Symposium,” which will take place at the Georgia State Bar Headquarters on Thursday, September 20, beginning at 9:00 a.m. (See Agenda below). This Whistleblower Law Symposium is organized and co-chaired by the authors of this whistleblower lawyer blog, Michael A. Sullivan and Richard W. Hendrix.

The presenters will include the very successful Pat O’Connell of the Texas Attorney General’s Office, whose group has recovered more than $216 million in health care fraud cases since 1999; and Jim Breen, who has represented relator Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys Inc. in many very substantial qui tam cases, including the action that led to last week’s announcement by DOJ of a settlement with Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc.

In addition, Steve Cowen of King & Spalding, LLP will chair a discussion of issues in defending False Claims Act cases; Marlan Wilbanks and other relators’ counsel will speak as well; and Charlie Richards of the Georgia Attorney General’s Office and Georgia’s Inspector General Doug Colburn will discuss the new Georgia State False Medicaid Claims Act.

We will also discuss the bill introduced last week by Senators Grassley, Durbin, Specter, and Leahy to make substantial modifications to the federal False Claims Act, the “False Claims Act Correction Act of 2007.” (See http://grassley.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=fac0a482-1321-0e36-ba6f-0150b8a2b182&Month=9&Year=2007).

Further, my partner Richard Hendrix and I will explain and discuss the new IRS Whistleblower Program created by Congress in December 2006. I spent several hours this past week in Washington with the Director of the new IRS Whistleblower Office, Stephen Whitlock, to prepare for and appear in a panel discussion to explain the new IRS Whistleblower Program. I also enjoyed lunch with the lead IRS official responsible for IRS Whistleblower claims in the financial services industry, Stuart Mann, and with Nicole Cammarota, an IRS official who is working on the new regulations. There is a great deal of excitement about this new IRS Whistleblower program, which rewards citizens who report large tax fraud, tax evasion, and other tax law violations to the IRS. (Our firm is pursuing a variety of IRS Whistleblower cases across the country.)

For anyone who believes that taxpayers pay too much to allow fraud against the federal and state governments, these exciting new developments in the law are important.

We are excited to be hosting this Whistleblower Law Symposium, and to discuss recent developments in the False Claims Act, the new state False Claims Acts, and the new IRS Whistleblower Program. The Agenda for the Symposium is below.
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Senators Specter and Leahy to Co-Sponsor Pro-Taxpayer Law to “Correct” Recent Court Decisions That Limited Effectiveness to Government of Qui Tam Whistleblower Law, the False Claims Act

In one of the most potentially significant developments ever discussed on this whistleblower lawyer blog, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) announced today that he and Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) are co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill designed to restore the government’s primary tool for fighting fraud against taxpayers, the False Claims Act, to its intended effectiveness. Court decisions in recent years had weakened the False Claims Act and impaired its usefulness in fighting fraud.

The new bill, the “False Claims Act Correction Act,” will also be co-sponored by Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Democratic Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont. Representative Howard Berman (D-California) is expected to introduce similar legislation in the House to strengthen the qui tam whistleblower law, which allows private citizens to report fraud against the government and be rewarded.

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Tomorrow in Washington, this whistleblowerlawyerblog author is looking forward to participating in a panel discussion with the Director of the new IRS Whistleblower Office, Stephen Whitlock, to explain how the new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program works.

We will speak at the Taxpayers Against Fraud Annual Conference in Washington at 6 p.m. on September 9. Leading the panel discussion will be Paul Scott. I am also looking forward to the presentations by Erika Kelton and Professor Dennis Ventry of American University’s Washington College of Law.

I have enjoyed speaking with Director Stephen Whitlock before about the progress of this exciting new program that rewards whistleblowers for bringing forth information about tax fraud, tax evasion, and underpayments of taxes. Our firm has been continually impressed by the professionalism of the IRS agents we have worked with in representing clients who have presented whistleblower claims to the IRS.

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Yesterday I enjoyed leading a panel discussion of the new State False Claims Acts, at the Southeastern Health Care Fraud Conference in Atlanta. Of particular interest to this audience was the new Georgia State False Medicaid Claims Act that became law in May 2007, which has qui tam whistleblower provisions similar to the federal False Claims Act.

Our audience of health care attorneys heard a detailed account of Florida’s successes with its State False Claims Act by Mark S. Thomas, the Chief of Staff and Special Counsel of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. We also learned how the Georgia Attorney General’s Office plans to implement the new State False Medicaid Claims Act in remarks by Charles M. Richards, Senior Assistant Attorney General of the Georgia State Health Care Fraud Control Unit.

Other excellent presentations were made in this seminar organized by my friends Steve Cowen of King & Spalding, LLP, and Joe Whitley of Alston & Bird, LLP. I am grateful to Joe and Steve for the opportunity to participate and explain the False Claims Act, the new Georgia State False Medicaid Claims Act and other state False Claims Acts, some of which have added interesting new wrinkles to health care compliance, by creating new theories of liability not found in the federal Act. (An article explaining some of the new thoeries of liability that these new State False Claims Acts introduce will appear in the October Georgia Bar Journal.)

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Our potential tax whistleblower clients–who call our attorneys about participating in the new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program–regularly ask before they proceed if the IRS will keep their identities confidential.

Across the country, the IRS Special Agents we have been dealing with in representing our tax whistleblower clients (for example, in New York, Las Vegas, Dallas, and Atlanta, to name a few) have consistently answered the question the same way. Confidentiality is addressed by Treasury Regulations applicable to the IRS, which provide in part as follows: “No unauthorized person will be advised of the identity of an informant.” 26 C.F.R. § 301.7623-1(e).

We have found the IRS Agents we deal with to be quite professional. They appreciate whistleblowers coming forward. They recognize that, when the IRS receives information from persons in this position, their investigative work is far more focused–and effective.

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One of the many types of fraud and false claims that whistleblowers can report to whistleblower attorneys is unlawful “kickbacks” paid by companies that do business with the federal government.

The Justice Department has announced a settlement with IBM and PriceWaterhouseCoopers for more than $5.2 million, to resolve allegations that these firms violated the False Claims Act through business arrangements that allegedly constituted unlawful kickbacks. The announcement followed a whistleblower suit under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, which we have explained on this whistleblower lawyer blog previously.

According to the government, it investigated IBM and PWC as part of an ongoing investigation of government technology vendors and consultants. Other complaints have been filed in April 2007 in Arkansas against Accenture, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems, according to the Justice Department.

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The Minerals Management Service of the U. S. Department of Interior is responsible for the collection of royalties on federal and Indian leases. Companies who have such leases are required to report to the Department of Interior the value of natural gas produced (or minerals mined) from federal and Indian leases and to pay a percentage to the government as royalties. When the entity that has the duty to pay the royalties files a false report and misstates what the collected revenues were, this is a “reverse” false claim. It is “reversed” because the entity is not making a claim for payment but is instead paying less money than is owed to the government under false pretenses. This case, like any scheme to defraud the federal government, is actionable under the False Claims Act and fortunately, the Department of Justice is vigorously prosecuting cases where those who owe money to the government are willfully failing to pay it.

Yesterday, on August 15, the Department of Justice announced that Burlington Resources, Inc., a subsidiary of Conoco Phillips, had agreed to settle a False Claims Act case with the United States for $97.5 million. A whistleblower had filed a Complaint against Burlington alleging that it was systematically underpaying royalties due on their federal and Indian gas production. The Department of Justice intervened in the Qui Tam lawsuit, determined that the whistleblower’s allegations were true and correct and forced a settlement with Burlington Resources, Inc.

What this case shows is that the Federal False Claims Act continues to be the government’s best tool for obtaining restitution and penalties in cases where companies are failing to discharge their duties to the federal government. While schemes to defraud take a variety of forms, obviously, a company with a lease agreement with the United States has a fiduciary duty to properly account for royalties. By submitting false reports understating the amount of gas production, Burlington Resources, Inc. exposed itself to the whistleblower suit and presumably paid 2 to 3 times the amount of actual damages in penalties as provided for by the Federal False Claims Act.

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Medicaid Fraud Recovery Announced by Missouri Attorney General

False and fraudulent billings were uncovered in a Missouri Medicaid fraud investigation that has produced a recovery by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Billings like this typically violate the False Claims Act or the various state False Claims Acts.

Prescriptions that had not been authorized by physicians were submitted and paid for by the Medicaid program. Once the suspicious activity was reported, the Attorney General’s Office’s investigation followed and produced a recovery of $462,926 from apparently a single pharmacy in DeKalb County, Missouri, the Randolph Drug Store in Maysville.

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