We are proud to announce that Finch McCranie partner and head of its Whistleblower practice Michael A. Sullivan has been named to the “SuperLawyers” list for the eleventh consecutive year.
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ATLANTA,GA
DULUTH, GA
ATLANTA,GA
DULUTH, GA
We are proud to announce that Finch McCranie partner and head of its Whistleblower practice Michael A. Sullivan has been named to the “SuperLawyers” list for the eleventh consecutive year.
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Yesterday the Justice Department apparently responded to the frequent lament, “Why has almost no one gone to prison for the financial crisis?” DOJ signaled that it will now look to hold responsible both culpable individuals and their companies for corporate misdeeds–both criminally and civilly.
If DOJ means what it says, this policy change is profound. It should hit corporate officers whose business models are based on fraud and false claims. It should also snare high level executives who turn a blind eye to wrongdoing, and who typically get away with it.
(more…)Sean McKessy of the SEC Whistleblower Program is right to continue his mission against muzzling whistleblowers through “confidentiality” agreements, for one simple reason:
Intimidating witnesses from reporting fraud is a form of obstruction of justice.
Although “confidentiality” agreements may appear innocent on their face, a company’s suggesting in any way that its employees refrain from reporting fraud or other violations of securities laws crosses the line. Too often, that is often the effect of these agreements–if not the intent as well.
(more…)Since 2007, top officials from federal and state agencies and many of the country’s experts in whistleblower cases have gathered in Atlanta to discuss and debate anti-fraud efforts at the Whistleblower Law Symposium.
Today I was excited to chair our Whistleblower Law Symposium once again, as these experts explored the latest developments in qui tam cases under the False Claims Act, and SEC whistleblower, CFTC whistleblower and IRS whistleblower claims. The breadth of expertise of today’s speakers was unusual.
First, top enforcement officials from California, Georgia and Texas shared their approaches and priorities under their state False Claims Acts. We were honored to hear from Britt Grant, Solicitor General of Georgia, about Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens’ impressive new efforts to stop the theft of taxpayer funds.
(more…)The SEC announced today its first SEC Whistleblower award to a former company officer. The award of a half-million dollars was for “original, high-quality information about a securities fraud,” which resulted in an SEC enforcement action with sanctions of more than $1 million.
Typically, corporate officers, directors and other corporate fiduciaries are not eligible for SEC Whistleblower awards when they learn of fraud through employee reports. The SEC built in flexibility in its rules, however, when the officer waits “more than 120 days after other
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Yesterday’s record award to an SEC whistleblower has far-reaching consequences because the SEC made clear it will reward foreign citizens living abroad who meet its criteria for a whistleblower award.
This decision rejects any suggestion that the SEC Whistleblower Program’s reach ends at the nation’s borders. The SEC recognized that a leading federal appeals court imposed such a limitation on the anti-retaliation provisions of the Dodd-Frank law, which authorized the SEC Whistleblower Program, but announced it is taking a different approach to whistleblower awards:
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Today the SEC Office of the Whistleblower announced the largest-ever award to an SEC whistleblower: $30 million to a whistleblower living abroad.
The size of the award reflects the SEC’s seriousness about utilizing whistleblowers’ information to expose major securities violations. The SEC described this as “ongoing fraud that would have been very difficult to detect” without the whistleblower, according to the Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Andrew Ceresney.
Sean McKessy, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, added that this award demonstrates
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FATCA is being implemented in a number of countries outside the U.S., with the result that U.S. individuals who hold foreign bank or financial accounts and have not disclosed these accounts in the U.S., are about to be reported to the IRS.
(This post is by our colleague Richard Rubin of Rubin Law (www.rubinlaw.us), a tax attorney with significant experience in U.S. cross-border matters, including FATCA and U.S. international compliance.)
Bank accounts in countries outside the U.S. can cause headaches when owned by U.S. taxpayers. While owning foreign accounts has always entailed a reporting headache for U.S. taxpayers, the problem has recently heightened as a result of the FATCA legislation that is being implemented in a number of countries outside the U.S.
(more…)The just-released FY 2013 IRS Whistleblower Office Annual Report reveals clues to what the future holds for tax whistleblowers.
Steve Whitlock, Director of the IRS Whistleblower Office, gave a preview last Fall. Listening to an audience react enthusiastically to his SEC counterpart Sean McKessy discuss awarding more than $14 million to a whistleblower, Whitlock wryly observed that the IRS had “only” awarded $50 million to whistleblowers in FY 2013.
To those who follow the IRS Whistleblower Program closely, Whitlock’s comment was a rare moment to
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In a momentous decision that will impact many future cases, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has just won a major victory in his pioneering tax fraud case against Sprint Nextel Corp.
The Appellate Division unanimously affirmed the trial court’s 2013 ruling (background discussed here) to allow Schneiderman’s first tax enforcement case under the New York False Claims Act to proceed.
The Complaint alleges that Sprint unlawfully failed to collect and pay $130 million in New York sales taxes on a portion of its revenue from fixed monthly access charges. Like the federal False Claims Act, the New York False Claims Act provides for recovery of three times the amount of damages incurred–“treble damages.”
(more…)For many years, Michael Sullivan of our firm and his colleague Jim Breen have organized the “Whistleblower Law Symposium.” It has consistently received high marks from participants.
This year’s Symposium will be available either in-person or online on Wednesday, March 13, starting at 815 am EDT. It offers 7.5 CLE hours, including 1 Ethics hour and 4 Trial Practice hours. Cost is $279.
You can register (and see the full Agenda) here: atlantabar.org/…. Topics include:
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After reporting on the SEC’s investigation and findings of 20 years of “misstatements” by the LDS Church and Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc., the Wall Street Journal‘s Jonathan Weil again reports on facts revealed by our SEC and IRS whistleblower submissions on behalf of our client, David Nielsen. Mr. Nielsen exposed violations of law relating to a what he called a “clandestine hedge fund” affiliated with the Mormon Church, in his recent appearance on 60 Minutes.
Turning to IRS violations, this WSJ article addresses in part why, “[o]n its 2007 return, Ensign Peak put down ‘1,000,000’ for its total assets. The real number was about $38 billion, an Ensign Peak document shows.”
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Regarding this past Sunday’s 60 Minutes interview of our client David Nielsen,
Mormon blows whistle on church’s alleged “clandestine hedge fund”
(https://www.cbsnews.com/60-minutes/ ):
Please see attached Statement,
which is also reprinted below.
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On Sunday, May 14, 60 Minutes featured an interview with our IRS and SEC whistleblower client David Nielsen.
My colleague Richard Rubin and I are proud to represent this principled whistleblower.
#cbs #60minutes #whistleblower #finchmccranie #secwhistleblower #irswhistleblower #ensignpeak
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In this week of new bank bailouts (following Silicon Valley Bank’s), a bipartisan group of five Senators has urged common sense improvements to the SEC Whistleblower laws. These Senators emphasize the “crucial role of whistleblowers” in protecting both investors and taxpayer funds.
(more…)COVID-19 has required unprecedented government spending through the CARES Act and other measures. That spending creates countless opportunities for theft of funds desperately needed to fight the coronavirus.
The virus has made the nation’s major “whistleblower” law–the federal False Claims Act (“FCA”) and similar state False Claims Acts –even more essential. Both the federal and state FCA laws are civil statutes designed to combat fraud directed at taxpayer dollars.
(more…)As the anxious public yearns for vaccines, treatments, and protections from the virus, the SEC has warned of a “substantial potential for fraud relating to COVID-19. The SEC’s enforcement actions against 23 companies are just the start, as more fraud will undoubtedly be uncovered.
Whistleblowers are critical to the SEC’s efforts to stop COVID-19 fraud. The SEC Office of the Whistleblower is authorized to pay monetary awards to whistleblowers whose information leads to an order of sanctions of $1 million or more.
(more…)Through a $465 million settlement, Finch McCranie’s Michael A. Sullivan and James J. Breen of the Breen Law Firm successfully represented a whistleblower whose qui tam case under the False Claims Act helped return hundreds of millions to the United States and various states for Medicaid rebates underpaid on new EpiPen products introduced in 2009.
The Department of Justice announced the settlement on August 17, 2017, of two qui tam cases pending in the District of Massachusetts, United States, et al. ex rel. sanofi-aventis US LLC v. Mylan Inc., et al., and our case, United States, et al. ex rel. Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys, Inc. Mylan Inc., et al..
(more…)Today the Department of Justice announced the largest settlement in its history with a skilled nursing facility chain–a qui tam whistleblower case under the False Claims Act that our firm and our co-counsel Mark Simpson worked side-by-side with DOJ to prepare for trial.
We applaud the exceptional work of DOJ’s attorneys, as well the outstanding attorneys of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Below is our press release on today’s settlement:
(more…)This past week our firm’s Larry D. Thompson, the former Deputy Attorney General of the United States, joined me for a panel discussion that I moderated on “The False Claims Act at 30,” at the annual Taxpayers Against Fraud Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.
Joining us on the panel were the Department of Justice’s Renee Brooker, an Assistant Director in the Civil Division with 25 years of DOJ experience; James J. (Jim) Breen, an accomplished qui tam lawyer whose cases have recovered almost $4 billion for federal and state taxpayers; and Neil Getnick, Chairman of TAF and an accomplished FCA lawyer in his own right.
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