{"id":227,"date":"2009-09-03T12:43:58","date_gmt":"2009-09-03T12:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whistleblowerlawyerblog.com\/2009\/09\/protecting_whistleblowers_from.html"},"modified":"2021-06-11T17:48:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T21:48:57","slug":"protecting_whistleblowers_from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/whistleblower-blog\/protecting_whistleblowers_from\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting Whistleblowers from Criminal Prosecution: The Mystery of the UBS Whistleblower&#8217;s Prison Sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In one of two prominent whistleblower cases in the news this week, whistleblower John Kopchinski will be awarded more than $50 million for his role in exposing improper &#8220;off-label marketing&#8221; of the drug Bextra by Pfizer.  Other whistleblowers also will be rewarded because of this settlement.  That settlement of $2.3 billion is the largest in history ($1 billion to settle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whistleblowerlawyerblog.com\/whistleblower_lawyer_blog_spec_1\/\">False Claims Act<\/a> allegations, and $1.3 billion in criminal fine and forfeiture).<\/p>\n<p>As large as the Pfizer settlement is, the other whistleblower&#8217;s actions seem likely to lead to recovery of dollars that could dwarf this $2.3 billion settlement.  UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld  has lifted the shroud of secrecy from thousands of American taxpayers&#8217; offshore accounts at UBS.  He has given the IRS a foothold into recovering potentially many billions in unpaid taxes owed.<\/p>\n<p>Yet Birkenfeld was recently sentenced to serve 40 months in federal prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States in a tax fraud scheme while at UBS.  His conviction also calls into question his ability to receive a reward under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whistleblowerlawyerblog.com\/working_with_the_new_irs_rewar\/\">IRS Whistleblower Program <\/a>from the billions to be collected by the IRS.<\/p>\n<p>How could this happen?  <\/p>\n<p>There are tried and true steps lawyers representing whistleblowers must take to protect their clients from the risk of prosecution. This was one of the topics of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whistleblowerlawyerblog.com\/irs_whistleblower_attorneys_co\/\">&#8220;IRS Whistleblower Boot Camp&#8221;<\/a> panel discussion that I led this past March, with panelists including IRS Whistleblower Office Director Steve Whitlock&#8211;how to protect the whistleblower who has potential criminal liability, but who has valuable information. <\/p>\n<p>If adequate protection cannot be obtained, often the whistleblower with real criminal exposure should choose not to go forward. If the information is important enough to the government, however, protection for the whistleblower often can be negotiated, so long as the whistleblower is truthful and forthcoming.  As former federal prosecutors who have also defended clients in white collar criminal prosecutions, we have represented many clients in obtaining this type of protection.<br \/>\n <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/whistleblower-blog\/protecting_whistleblowers_from\/#more-227\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In one of two prominent whistleblower cases in the news this week, whistleblower John Kopchinski will be awarded more than $50 million for his role in exposing improper &#8220;off-label marketing&#8221; of the drug Bextra by Pfizer. Other whistleblowers also will be rewarded because of this settlement. That settlement of $2.3 billion is the largest in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,8,10,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-false-claims-act","category-health-care-fraud","category-irs-whistleblower-program-for-tax-whistleblowers","category-medicare-and-medicaid-fraud","category-pharmaceutical-fraud","category-state-false-claims-acts","category-stimulus-package-fraud-american-recovery-and-reinvestment-act"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Protecting Whistleblowers from Criminal Prosecution: The Mystery of the UBS Whistleblower&#039;s Prison Sentence &#8212; Whistleblower Lawyer Blog &#8212; September 3, 2009<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In one of two prominent whistleblower cases in the news this week, whistleblower John Kopchinski will be awarded more than $50 million for his role in &#8212; September 3, 2009\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/whistleblower-blog\/protecting_whistleblowers_from\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Protecting Whistleblowers from Criminal Prosecution: The Mystery of the UBS Whistleblower&#039;s Prison Sentence &#8212; Whistleblower Lawyer Blog &#8212; September 3, 2009\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In one of two prominent whistleblower cases in the news this week, whistleblower John Kopchinski will be awarded more than $50 million for his role in &#8212; September 3, 2009\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Sullivan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Protecting Whistleblowers from Criminal Prosecution: The Mystery of the UBS Whistleblower's Prison Sentence &#8212; 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