Recently-appointed Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz appointed a new Whistleblower Ombudsperson within the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Robert Storch, an experienced federal prosecutor, will fill the newly-created position. The announcement indicated that this is the first such position in the federal government. The OIG announcement of the new position indicates …
Category: Whistleblower Systems
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/08/doj-appoints-first-ever-whistleblower-ombudsperson/
Aug 18
Whistleblower Recovery Is Ordinary Taxable Income
The Ninth Circuit decided a taxation case of first impression involving whether a qui tam or whistleblower recovery provides a taxable capital gain from a sale of property, or ordinary taxable income. The District Court in Los Angeles, and the Ninth Circuit both agreed with the IRS that the higher rate of taxation from ordinary …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/08/whistleblower-recovery-is-ordinary-taxable-income/
Jul 01
Will the IRS finally get serious about its whistleblower program?
A June 20, 2012 memorandum from Steven Miller, IRS deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement, acknowledges that the IS has done a poor job with it whistleblower program, and seeks to establish a new standard of much better responsiveness. This article describes the program that was signed into law at the end of 2006. Miller’s …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/07/will-the-irs-finally-get-serious-about-its-whistleblower-program/
May 29
Grassley again criticizes IRS whistleblower program administration
Senator Chuck Grassley is a member of the Senate Finance Committee. In a May 2012 letter, he prods Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to do a much better job of timely compensating IRS whistleblowers for their information. See this article for more information about the IRS whistleblower program and the program’s …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/05/grassley-again-criticizes-irs-whistleblower-program-administration/
Apr 17
GSA Whistleblower Testifies Regarding Government Waste
There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the approximately $800,000 spent on a lavish 2010 Las Vegas conference hosted by the General Services Administration (GSA). The GSA handles government real estate and other non-military procurement. Susan Brita, a GSA deputy administrator, was the whistleblower who first raised the issue, which has since …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/04/gsa-whistleblower-testifies-regarding-government-waste/
Mar 19
IRS ignoring payments required by its whistleblower program
A former bank executive filed suit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for failing to pay him a whistleblower award for information submitted in 2007. As initially reported in the Washington Post, Joseph Insinga … alleged that Rabobank Group, where he worked as an executive for more than a decade, helped seven companies avoid hundreds …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/03/irs-ignoring-payments-required-by-its-whistleblower-program/
Mar 10
Former CEO recognized for whistleblower action
Michael Woodford has been recognized with the 2012 Cliff Robertson Sentinel Award by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (“ACFE”) for the whistleblower actions that allegedly led to his ousting from the company. As the new CEO of Olympus Corporation, Mr, Woodford exposed alleged fraud at his own company. The allegations involved improper accounting attributed to …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/03/former-ceo-recognized-for-whistleblower-action/
Feb 16
First Circuit limits SOX whistleblower protection
In a February 3, 2012 Opinion, the First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a Massachusetts District Court and held that, while the whistleblower protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act apply to employees of “public companies” (i.e., a company with registered securities or one that files reports under Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act), they do not …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/02/first-circuit-limits-sox-whistleblower-protection/
Feb 03
DOL’s ARB limits SOX whistleblower protections To U.S. employees
By a 3-2 vote, the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board (ARB) limited the jurisdiction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) whistleblower protection outside the United States. The case is Villanueva v. Core Laboratories, NV, ARB No. 09-108, ALJ No. 2009-SOX-6 (ARB Dec. 22, 2011) (en banc). The ARB received multiple amicus briefs setting out the …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/02/dols-arb-limits-sox-whistleblower-protections-to-u-s-employees/
Jan 09
SEC Whistleblower Program Collects a Surprising Number of Complaints
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act added requirements for the SEC to maintain a whistleblower reporting capability, and to annually report on the results each fiscal year. Section 922 of Dodd-Frank added Section 21F to the Securities Exchange Act, requiring the SEC to make monetary awards to those who voluntarily provide original …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/01/sec-whistleblower-program-collects-a-surprising-number-of-complaints/