National Whistleblower Center

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The National Whistleblower Center (NWC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax exempt, educational and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1988 by the lawyers Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP. [1] As of June 2021, Siri Nelson is the executive director. [2] Since its founding, the center has worked on whistleblower cases relating to environmental protection, nuclear safety, government and corporate accountability, and wildlife crime.

Contents

Programs

NWC operates three main programs: (1) providing whistleblowers with legal assistance, (2) advocating for policies that protect and reward whistleblowers such as the Dodd–Frank Act, the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, and the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, and (3) educating the public about the importance of whistleblowers to preserving democracy and the rule of law. [3] The NWC strongly opposes efforts to weaken existing laws and pushes for strengthening laws protecting whistleblowers across sectors. [4]

Starting in 2013, the U.S. Senate has recognized National Whistleblower Appreciation Day each year on July 30 at the urging of Senator Chuck Grassley, a founding member of the Whistleblower Protection Caucus in Congress. [5] [6] National Whistleblower Day Appreciation honors the anniversary of the United States' first whistleblower law, passed on July 30, 1778, during the height of the Revolutionary War. [7] The National Whistleblower Center has hosted an annual celebration on the day to honor and celebrate the contributions of whistleblowers. Past speakers have included prominent members of Congress, agency heads, whistleblowers, and whistleblower advocates. [8]

NWC Accomplishments

In addition to protecting the jobs and careers of numerous whistleblowers, the center's victories [9] [10] [11] include the following:

Prominent NWC whistleblowers

Bradley (Brad) Birkenfeld

Brad Birkenfeld is a former banker and wealth manager with UBS who exposed massive tax evasion in the Swiss banking system. He made history in 2012 when he received the largest ever whistleblower reward of $104 million from the IRS Office of the Whistleblower for reporting tax fraud. [12] [13] His disclosures resulted in unprecedented recoveries for US taxpayers with over $5 billion collected from US citizens with illegal "undeclared" offshore accounts and $780 million paid in fines and penalties by UBS. [14]

Marrita Murphy

In Murphy v. IRS , [15] whistleblower Marrita Murphy (represented by David K. Colapinto, general counsel for the National Whistleblower Center) challenged the constitutionality of taxing compensatory damages in civil rights/whistleblower cases. In August 2006, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of Ms. Murphy, and declared unconstitutional a special tax Congress had passed in 1996, which targeted civil rights victims who received compensation for emotional distress damages. However, in July 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed itself on the case, holding that the IRS can tax damage awards based solely on compensating victims who suffer emotional injuries. [16]

Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse

Bunny Greenhouse, former chief contracting officer of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, testified in June 2005 before a Democratic party public committee. Her testimony included allegations against Halliburton of instances of waste, fraud and other abuses with regards to its operations in the Iraq War. After standing up and "blowing the whistle", she was demoted and removed from her position as the chief civilian contracting authority of the Corps. In July 2011, she won close to $1 million in full restitution of lost wages, compensatory damages, and attorney fees. [17]

Jane Turner

In 1999, former FBI special agent Jane Turner brought to the attention of her management team serious misconduct concerning failures to investigate and prosecute crimes against children in Indian Country and in the Minot, North Dakota community. Turner also reported on misconduct related to the potential criminal theft of property from the 9/11 Ground Zero crime scene in New York City by Minneapolis FBI personnel. Although she was considered one of the best agents working in Indian Country, Turner's twenty-five year career with the FBI was brought to a halt when she was forced from service as retaliation for what FBI management termed as "tarnishing" the image of the FBI.

Dr. Frederic Whitehurst

Dr. Frederic Whitehurst is the executive director of the NWC's Forensic Justice Project. Whitehurst received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Duke University, and a J.D. from Georgetown University. He joined the FBI in 1982 and served as a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI crime lab from 1986 - 1998. In the lab, he observed procedural errors and misconduct by agents and as a result went public as a whistleblower. He retired after winning the first-ever whistleblower case against the FBI.

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo was a senior policy analyst for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She founded two employee-rights groups, EPA Employees Against Racial Discrimination and the No FEAR coalition. Through her leadership, the No FEAR Coalition, working closely with Representative James Sensenbrenner, organized a successful grass-roots campaign and obtained overwhelming Congressional support for the "Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act". The Act was signed into law by President Bush in 2002.

Dr. Jonathan Fishbein

The center has championed the case of one of the highest ranking drug whistleblowers in American history, Dr. Jonathan Fishbein. Fishbein exposed a series of unethical and improper medical problems within the National Institutes of Health's drug safety clinical trials program. In the wake of Fishbein's allegations, the United States Department of Health and Human Services enacted sweeping conflict of interest reforms and promised protection of senior ranking employees who blow the whistle. Additionally, drug companies have instituted voluntary reforms in an effort to circumvent congressional acts. Regardless of the scandals that have rocked the drug agency, Congress has still not enacted federal protection for drug whistleblowers.

Unionization Controversy

Lindsey Williams worked as director of advocacy for the National Whistleblower Center, but was laid off in 2012 after attempting to unionize the small workforce. She was offered a severance package but rejected it because of a confidentiality clause that would have prevented her from discussing her experiences. She appealed to the National Labor Relations Board, and eventually settled the case with her former employer. [18]

Related Research Articles

Whistleblowing is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whistleblowers can use a variety of internal or external channels to communicate information or allegations. Over 83% of whistleblowers report internally to a supervisor, human resources, compliance, or a neutral third party within the company, hoping that the company will address and correct the issues. A whistleblower can also bring allegations to light by communicating with external entities, such as the media, government, or law enforcement. Some countries legislate as to what constitutes a protected disclosure, and the permissible methods of presenting a disclosure. Whistleblowing can occur in the private sector or the public sector.

The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), founded in 2004 by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds in league with over 50 former and current United States government officials from more than a dozen agencies, is an independent, nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to address weaknesses of US security agencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto</span> American law firm in Washington, D.C.

Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto is a Washington, D.C.-based international whistleblower rights law firm specializing in anti-corruption and whistleblower law, representing whistleblowers who seek rewards, or who are facing employer retaliation, for reporting violations of the False Claims Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, Sarbanes-Oxley Acts, Commodity and Security Exchange Acts and the IRS Whistleblower law.

David Keith Colapinto is an attorney for Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, a Washington, D.C., US, law firm specializing in employment law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IRS Criminal Investigation</span> Criminal Investigation division of the IRS

Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the United States federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating potential criminal violations of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes, such as money laundering, currency transaction violations, tax-related identity theft fraud and terrorist financing that adversely affect tax administration. While other federal agencies also have investigative jurisdiction for money laundering and some Bank Secrecy Act violations, IRS-CI is the only federal agency that can investigate potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code, in a manner intended to foster confidence in the tax system and deter violations of tax law. Criminal Investigation is a division of the Internal Revenue Service, which in turn is a bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury.

The Whistle blower Week is the name given to a series of events in Washington, D.C. meant to raise awareness about whistle blowing. There were two whistle blower weeks which took place in Washington in two different years.

The IRS Whistleblower Office is a branch of the United States Internal Revenue Service that will "process tips received from individuals, who spot tax problems in their workplace, while conducting day-to-day personal business or anywhere else they may be encountered." Tipsters should use IRS Form 211 to make a claim.

Jane Turner entered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a Special Agent in October 1978. She was assigned to the Seattle Division and became the first female SWAT member and the first female Profile Coordinator. She was involved in the capture of Christopher Boyce, and in the Green River Killer investigation.

Stephen Martin Kohn is an attorney for Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, a Washington, D.C., law firm specializing in employment law. The author of the first legal treatise on whistleblowing, Kohn is recognized as one of the top experts in whistleblower protection law. He also has written on the subject of political prisoners and the history of the abrogation of the rights of political protestors.

Michael D. Kohn is a founding partner of the Washington, D.C., law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, where he specializes in whistleblower protection law.

Raoul Weil is a Swiss banker. Weil is best known as being the former chairman and chief executive officer of Global Wealth Management & Business Banking at UBS AG. Weil eventually became a member of UBS's group executive board.

Bradley Charles Birkenfeld is an American private banker, convicted felon, and whistleblower. During the mid- to late-2000s, he made a series of disclosures about UBS Group AG clients, in violation of Swiss banking secrecy laws, to the U.S. government alleging possible tax evasion. Known as the 2007 "Birkenfeld Disclosure", the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had reached a deferred prosecution agreement with UBS that resulted in a US$780 million fine and the release of previously privileged information on American tax evaders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UBS tax evasion controversies</span>

The Swiss investment bank and financial services company, UBS Group AG, has been at the center of numerous tax evasion and avoidance investigations undertaken by U.S., French, German, Israeli, and Belgian tax authorities as a consequence of their strict banking secrecy practices.

Howard Stephen Jeremy Wilkinson is a British whistleblower whose actions helped to illuminate the 2018 Danske Bank money laundering scandal. Wilkinson's disclosure was part of reporting that was published in 2018 that stated from 2007 to 2014, a Danske Bank branch located in Estonia had been involved in the suspected laundering of up to $235 billion U.S. dollars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tristan Leavitt</span> American attorney

Tristan Leavitt is an American attorney who is the president of Empower Oversight as of March 2023. He formerly served in several roles at the Merit Systems Protection Board, including member, acting chair, and general counsel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CFTC Whistleblower Program</span>

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Whistleblower Program was created with the 2010 passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. The program rewards individuals who report possible Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) violations. The program also extends anti-retaliation protections for whistleblowers who file claims.

References

  1. ↑ "Mission & History". National Whistleblower Center. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  2. ↑ "National Whistleblower Center Team: Siri Nelson". National Whistleblower Center. 2021-06-01. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  3. ↑ "Mission & History". National Whistleblower Center. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  4. ↑ "About Us". whistleblowers.org. National Whistleblower Center. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  5. ↑ "The message behind National Whistleblower Day". The Hill. August 2, 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  6. ↑ Heckman, Jory (July 30, 2018). "Grassley: Whistleblowers 'as welcome as a skunk at a picnic' at agencies. But what about the White House?". Federal News Network. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  7. ↑ Kohn, Stephen M. (2011-06-12). "Opinion | The Whistle-Blowers of 1777". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  8. ↑ "Enact a National Whistleblower Day". National Whistleblower Center. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  9. ↑ "Mission & History". National Whistleblower Center. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  10. ↑ "2018 Successful Year Advocating for Whistleblower Rights". National Whistleblower Center. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  11. ↑ "NWC Releases End-of-Year Report on Whistleblower Victories of 2016 -". National Whistleblower Center. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  12. ↑ Kocieniewski, David (2012-09-11). "I.R.S. Awards $104 Million to Bradley Birkenfeld, a Whistle-Blower". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  13. ↑ "Whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld Rewarded Record $104M for Exposing How UBS Helped Rich Evade Taxes". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  14. ↑ "Bradley Birkenfeld IRS Tax Fraud Whistleblower - Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto". KKC. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  15. ↑ 460 F.3d 79, 2006-2 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 50,476, 2006 WL 2411372 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 22, 2006).
  16. ↑ "Lawsuits, Awards, and Settlements Audit Techniques Guide" (PDF). Internal Revenue Service. 2011-05-01. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  17. ↑ "A bittersweet win for a whistleblower". Washington Post.
  18. ↑ Goldstein, Matthew; Protess, Ben (December 1, 2015). "Whistle-Blower Complaint Directed at Whistle-Blower Group". The New York Times .
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