Reuters: New U.S. IRS Whistleblower Rules May Limit Some Rewards – Lawyers

The IRS is proposing new rules related to its whistleblower rewards program which would lessen the ability of whistleblowers to report tax cheats and collect a percentage of the recovery. This action comes at a time when the program has been criticized – most notably by Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley – for being ineffective.

New Reports Contain Statistics Regarding Whistleblower Cases at the Multilateral Development Banks

Last month, the Treasury Department issued two reports containing information about the whistleblower protection records of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). In part, these reports are responding to a spring 2012 GAP petition that urged the Department to include these data in its future reports. GAP International program staff break down the positive and negative findings in this blog for each MDB: The World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, African Development Bank, and Asian Development Bank.

The New York Times: Amgen Expected to Plead Guilty in U.S. Case

The drug/biotech company Amgen is expected to plead guilty today in federal court, and settle lawsuits related to its wrongful marketing of drug products. According to one source, the company would admit culpability to promoting drugs for uses not approved by the FDA. At least 10 separate whistleblower lawsuits have been filed against the company involving these actions.

McClatchy Newspapers: New USDA Rule Would Speed Poultry Processing Lines, Worrying Inspectors

More coverage of USDA inspector concerns regarding the agency's plan to hand over federal poultry inspection duties to the industry and increase processing line speeds in a way that would threaten worker and food safety.

GAP's Food Integrity Campaign, along with USDA whistleblower Phyllis McKelvey and other groups that oppose the agency proposal, helped raise awareness about the rule during a tweet chat last Friday that resulted in the #PoultryRule hashtag "trending" on Twitter.

Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.

In November, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued two reports that contain information about the whistleblower protection records of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).

In part, these reports are responsive to a spring 2012 GAP petition that urged the Department to include these data in its future reports.

The reports contain useful information about the implementation record at four MDBs. Key findings include:

The World Bank

According to one report, from January 2009 – July 2012 “233 staff and consultants made protected disclosures to INT [the Office of Institutional Integrity] of alleged misconduct.” During this time period, the Bank’s Office of Ethics and Business Conduct (EBC) received 26 whistleblower retaliation allegations. It appears that the EBC did not substantiate any of these allegations. The report also says that the final level of the Bank’s internal grievance system, the Administrative Tribunal, received 13 cases of alleged whistleblower retaliation during this time period and found in favor of six of the applicants.

GAP has several observations about these statistics. First, on the positive side:

• Many staff members have made protected disclosures to INT without reprisal. This is, of course, the objective of the whistleblower protection policy.
• Nearly half of the retaliation cases brought to the Tribunal were vindicated.

However, the figures also show that:

• The EBC is not effectively protecting whistleblowers when retaliation does occur. Not one out of 26 retaliation complaints to the EBC was substantiated over a period of three years. While such a record is possible, it is highly improbable, especially in light of the fact that several whistleblowers who did not receive relief from EBC were apparently vindicated by the Tribunal.

Moreover, the report could be strengthened by showing whether the Tribunal substantiated the whistleblowers’ retaliation claims. Often, such cases involve not only allegations of retaliation, but also allegations of due process violations, and in GAP’s experience, the Tribunal has been hesitant to substantiate retaliation, even in cases (i.e.: decision no. 448 and 437) in which it sided with the applicant on other claims. The statistic would also be more meaningful if it indicated whether the relief received by whistleblowers who prevail is comprehensive and covered the consequences of reprisal. Finally, the Treasury Department’s report implies that the Bank’s whistleblower policy is “consistent with international best practices.” GAP disagrees.

Gadsden Times (AL): State School Board Eyes Grievance Policy, Whistleblower Hot Line

The Alabama School Board is considering creating a statewide whistleblower hotline for the reporting of "suspected ethics and financial wrongdoing." The Board supervises K-12 schools and two-year college facilities.

Lunch Lecture 12/21: GAP Client Renee Dufault Talks Mercury & Metabolism

GAP's Food Integrity Campaign (FIC) will be hosting a presentation this Friday, Dec. 21, in our Washington D.C. office, by former client and whistleblower Renee Dufault. She will be discussing how mercury exposure interacts with genes to change a person's metabolism. For event details, check out the FIC blog.

Naked Capitalism: Deutsche Bank's $12 Billion in Hidden Losses – Why Whistleblower Charges Have Merit and Why They Matter

In-depth coverage from a prominent financial blog detailing the allegations of GAP client Eric Ben-Artzi, the former Risk Analyst at Deutsche Bank who publicly came forward earlier this month with his allegations that the financial institution engaged in multi-billion dollar fraud by valuing trades in a way that hid billions in losses.

The Global Fund Retaliates Against Its Inspector General

This blog post by GAP Executive & International Director Bea Edwards details the highly questionable firing by the Global Fund – a "public-private partnership and international financing institution" dedicated to fighting disease worldwide – of its Inspector General, after he began to find problems of money laundering in institutional projects. Despite promoting itself as a transparent organization, the group "suppressed the evidence and fired the Inspector General before the problems could be confirmed and made public."

Earth Island Journal: New Whistleblower Protection Law An Environmentally Significant Reform," Say Activists

In addition to GAP and other watchdog groups, several environmental and food safety groups also fought for the passing of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA), which was recently signed into law by President Obama. The article mentions peanut/Salmonella whistleblower Kenneth Kendrick and retired USDA inspector whistleblower Phyllis McKelvey who each would have benefited from the strengthened whistleblower protections when raising concerns previously about the food supply.

Key Quote: "This reform took thirteen years to pass because it can make so much difference against fraud, waste and abuse. Government managers at all levels made pleas and repeatedly blocked the bill through procedural sabotage. But once there were no more secret 'holds,' the WPEA passed unanimously, because no politician in a free society can openly oppose freedom of speech,” Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project said in a statement.

HuffPo Live: Whistleblower – Customs Officers Forced Women to Strip

This segment features an interview with whistleblower Cathy Harris, a former senior inspector for the U.S. Customs Service (USCS) at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, who disclosed to the media the USCS practice of discriminatory racial profiling. Ms. Harris’ revelations resulted in a damning GAO study of USCS profiling practices, and federal legislation to reform these unconstitutional practices.

Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.

On November 15, the Global Fund fired John Parsons, its Inspector General (IG). Because the IG is the official responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct and corruption, as well as whistleblower disclosures, he must be able to function independently of management, and firing him does not look good. In this particular situation, in fact, it looks especially bad. Parsons is a veteran auditor and investigator with nearly forty years of impressive work. He was a Director at the UK National Audit Office and served there for 23 years before moving into high-level international audit assignments in the United Nations system. At the Global Fund, he led an investigative team that uncovered substantial irregularities in a number of projects over a period of years, and it now appears that such findings were too embarrassing for the organization.

When Parsons began to find problems of money laundering in Global Fund projects, the sale and use of sub-standard health products, suspicious activities of celebrity-politicians, and other corrupt practices, he notified the Audit Committee of the Board, among other officials. At the GF, this was extremely inconvenient. The Global Fund promotes itself as open and transparent – the superior public/private alternative to the more secretive intergovernmental organizations. If compromising findings are confirmed, they must be revealed; they can’t be quietly covered up.

The Global Fund’s actions in the face of this dilemma were telling. The organization suppressed the evidence and fired the Inspector General before the problems could be confirmed and made public.

Speigel International: Did Deutsche Bank Fraudulently Hide Huge Losses?

An excellent summary of the concerns brought forth by GAP client and whistleblower Eric Ben-Artzi, the former Risk Analyst at Deutsche Bank who publicly came forward last week with his allegations that the financial institution engaged in multi-billion dollar fraud by valuing trades in a way that hid billions in losses.

Key Quote: It's unlikely that the charges will melt into thin air or that the bank will simply be able to discredit Ben-Artzi. His qualifications can hardly be called into question. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from New York University and worked at Goldman Sachs before going to Deutsche Bank. He also doesn't come across as a reckless person or a troublemaker on a crusade. On the contrary, he looks like a model investment banker, with his boyish face and dark blue, tailored suit and striped tie. He still sounds enthusiastic about finance when he talks.

The Nation: 'NYT' Public Editor Again Hits Paper Over Coverage of Bradley Manning Hearing

This blog post details The New York Times public editor's two columns criticizing the paper for not adequately covering the hearings of Bradley Manning – the soldier accused of providing classified information to WikiLeaks. GAP National Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack has also been criticizing major media outlets for not providing more coverage of the trial, and their excuses for such inaction. Radack is the only whistleblower advocate/human rights attorney that has attended the near entirety of the hearings.

Los Angeles Times: California Workers Misused $613,000 in Taxpayer Funds, Report Finds

Nine investigations into whistleblower concerns by the State Auditor of California over the last two years has resulted in the discovery that $613,000 worth of taxpayer funds have been misused.

In other California whistleblower news, this Sacramento Bee masthead editorial calls out the city for failing to adequately fund and staff its whistleblower hotline program, saying the city is trying to investigate complaints "on the cheap." The editorial lays out several major shortcomings in the city's current whistleblower program.

Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.

The Guardian (UK): Guardian Person of the Year – Voters Choose Bradley Manning

Summary: Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of giving classified information to WikiLeaks, was voted The Guardian’s Person of the Year by readers. Manning spoke publicly for the first time earlier this month at a pretrial hearing, detailing his harsh treatment while being held at Quantico, the Marine base in Virginia. 

The hearing continued this week, with the brig commander where Manning was held testifying yesterday that she was told to “run her orders up the chain of command, a surprising break with the usual pattern.” Manning was forced to strip down to his underwear every night as a part of “suicide watch” and frequently had to stand naked for inmate count.

Manning’s lawyers are seeking a dismissal of some charges, or at least a reduced sentence, based on his treatment qualifying as pretrial punishment. Many have been critical of the lack of mainstream media coverage of the hearing, like GAP's Jesselyn Radack. The New York Times public editor even called out her paper last week for its lack of coverage, which it started to rectify a few days later when it started covering the hearings. Manning faces life in prison if convicted of all charges. His full court martial is scheduled for February.

Take Part: Don’t Let Whistleblowers Get Blown Away

Summary: GAP Legal Director Tom Devine wrote an op-ed for TakePart calling for the National Defense Authorization Act to include whistleblower protections for federal contractors. GAP has teamed up with TakePart to promote these protections and TakePart is hosting a petition urging Congress to pass them on their site. Be sure to sign it!