“The key informant in the U.S. tax evasion case against Swiss bank UBS AG faces prison next year, but his harsher-than-expected treatment by the U.S. Justice Department will undermine efforts to expose secretive offshore tax havens, lawyers and whistle-blower advocates say. Bradley Birkenfeld, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, has been hailed by his attorneys and prosecutors…
News
New rules by IRS to Benefit Whistleblowers
“Whistleblowers and their advocates have long complained that they are unappreciated – or downright resented – at the Internal Revenue Service, but the agency on Friday gave them a pleasant surprise. Months after narrowing the circumstances under which whistleblowers could collect rewards for exposing tax evasion, the IRS reversed its position. “This is really I…
Taxes
Our significant background in the tax laws – including our partner Mr. Dean Zerbe who served as senior counsel and tax counsel for the Senate Finance Committee where he was responsible for the creation of the IRS whistleblower law at the direction of Senator Grassley – has made representing tax whistleblowers a specialty of our…
Pfizer whistleblower’s ordeal reaps big rewards
“(Reuters) – Taking on corporate giants can feel like tilting at windmills, but John Kopchinski’s six-year legal battle against Pfizer Inc just made him a rich man. The Gulf War veteran and former Pfizer sales representative will earn more than $51.5 million as a result of his whistleblower lawsuit against the world’s biggest drugmaker and…
IRS Stingy With Whistleblower Payouts, Slow to Follow Up on Tips
“The IRS took more than four years to reward a whistleblower through a new program to encourage tipsters and has drawn criticism from the Government Accountability Office for failing to move faster. A recent GAO study found that the program, which has attracted tips from more than 1,300 whistleblowers, doesn’t collect data that could speed…
