Protections in Stimulus Bill Help Workers Hold Government Accountable

A Joint Statement from a Coalition of Public Interest Groups

Washington, D.C. February 3, 2009. Monday's Washington Post editorial, "Wrong Way to Protect," did a disservice to its readers and the taxpayers when it opposed provisions in the economic stimulus bill that are designed to empower federal whistleblowers.

Washington, D.C. December 17, 2008. The National Whistleblowers Center and Government Accountability Project filed an amicus brief in support of a whistleblower in a case filed under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.   In this Maryland case, the judge ordered the case back to the Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB) saying that the de novo hearing provision of SOX was "absurd."  See Blog 

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Harry Markopolos, call your office.

Under little-noticed new provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, whistleblowers like Markopolos who alerted the SEC to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme will for the first time be entitled to collect between 10- and- 30 percent of the money recovered by the government.

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(Washington Post) Former Swiss banker Bradley Birkenfeld had secrets he was burning to tell, secrets so profound they could change lives and fortunes, beginning with his own.

They could make him rich, and they could send him to prison. They could expose thousands of Americans who had hidden money from the Internal Revenue Service, and they could implicate one of the world's most powerful financial institutions in a far-reaching fraud against the U.S. government. They could topple Switzerland from its vaunted position as secret banker to the world.

(NY Daily News) A former banker who blew the whistle on thousands of secret bank accounts rich Americans held at Swiss giant UBS claimed Thursday some U.S. politicians also kept off-shore accounts with the bank.

"We had an office in Washington that we all referred to as the PEP office - for 'Politically Exposed People,'" Bradley Birkenfeld said.

MIAMI (AP) - An imprisoned ex-Swiss banker credited with exposing widespread tax evasion at Swiss bank UBS AG is seeking clemency from President Barack Obama, his attorneys said Wednesday.

Lawyers at the Washington-based National Whistleblowers Center said they will file a clemency petition Thursday for Bradley Birkenfeld, timing it to coincide with the day U.S. income tax returns are due for most people. The petition seeks a reduction in Birkenfeld's three-year-plus sentence for a fraud conspiracy conviction to time served since he reported to prison Jan. 8.

MINERSVILLE, Pa.-Bradley Birkenfeld, the whistle-blower who helped expose widespread tax evasion in the Swiss banking industry, insists he would do it all over again. But, he would do it very differently.

With the benefit of hindsight sharpened by the view from the Pennsylvania prison where he began serving three-plus years in January, Mr. Birkenfeld says he is an informant who blew on the wrong whistle.

The 45-year-old Mr. Birkenfeld has a new legal team and tactics in place, and fuelled by anger at how he was treated by the Justice Department, he plans to ask President Barack Obama to commute his sentence. He also still hopes to claim a multimillion-dollar reward from an Internal Revenue Service whistle-blower office, which may begin paying monetary rewards this year.

For Immediate Release

Friday, February 27, 2009

Grassley urges the President to change culture of bureaucracy by honoring whistleblowers with a Rose Garden ceremony

WASHINGTON --- Senator Chuck Grassley today urged President Barack Obama to plan a Rose Garden ceremony to honor whistleblowers in order to strengthen transparency, good government and accountability in the federal bureaucracy.

20 Million Employees Get Whistleblower Protection

Washington, D.C. August 14, 2008. Today President Bush signed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Overwhelming Congressional majorities sent the bipartisan bill to the president's desk on July 30, after a reaching compromise on several key provisions, including whistleblower protection.

 

National Whistleblowers Center Attorney Lindsey Williams on finding a balance between protecting whistleblowers and maintaining access to information. Fox Business July 29, 2010