Victories

UBS Whistleblower Gets $104M for Shattering Swiss Banking Secrecy

Topics: 
USA, White-collar crime, Victories
Rating: 
3

Jesselyn Radack – September 11, 2012

After recent rumors of a turnaround for financial whistleblowers seeking rewards under the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) whistleblower reward program, it is fitting that one of its rare financial awards goes to United Swiss Bank (UBS) whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld.

Not only is Birkenfeld the biggest tax fraud whistleblower in history (who handed the IRS key information on a silver platter), but he is especially deserving as he is the only person to go to prison among the thousands of Swiss bank account tax cheats he exposed. (Easy to understand now that we have a presidential candidate who hides money in offshore tax havens.)

SEC Pays $50,000 in First Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Reward

Topics: 
USA, White-collar crime, SEC, Victories, Financial industry, Rewards
Rating: 
0

Joshua Gallu, Bloomberg – August 21, 2012

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission awarded $50,000 to a whistleblower in its first payout from a program started last year to reward people who provide regulators with evidence of securities fraud.

The whistleblower helped the SEC bring an enforcement action that resulted in more than $1 million in sanctions, the agency said today in a statement. The award represents 30 percent -- the maximum allowed under the Dodd-Frank Act -- of the approximately $150,000 collected so far.

Victory for the UN’s leading whistleblower

Topics: 
Whistleblowers, Corruption, United Nations, Victories
Rating: 
3
James Wasserstrom

The Economist – June 30, 2012

In theory the United Nations cherishes and protects whistleblowers. In practice, a clubby atmosphere prevails in which dissent counts as disloyalty. Now the UN’s highest tribunal has vindicated a victim of official harrassment.

James Wasserstrom (pictured), was posted to Kosovo to fight corruption. In 2007 he started raising concerns about what he saw as misconduct involving links between UN officials and a local utility company. His worries were ignored. After he complained to the UN’s oversight office, he says, his boss cut his staff, in effect abolishing his job, and had him investigated for misconduct. That culminated in his detention, the search of his house and car, and other indignities.

UN tribunal finds ethics office failed to protect whistleblower

Topics: 
Corruption, United Nations, Victories, Watchdogs
Rating: 
0
Ban Ki-moon

Julian Borger – June 27, 2012

A landmark case brought by a former United Nations employee against the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has cast light on what activists describe as a pervasive culture of impunity in an organisation where whistleblowers are given minimal protection from reprisals.

James Wasserstrom, a veteran American diplomat, was sacked and then detained by UN police, who ransacked his flat, searched his car and put his picture on a wanted poster after he raised suspicions in 2007 about corruption in the senior ranks of the UN mission in Kosovo (Unmik).

Panel says UN failed to protect whistleblower

Topics: 
Corruption, Videos, United Nations, Victories
Rating: 
0

Kristen Saloomey, Al Jazeera– June 23, 2012

A tribunal has found the UN liable for failing to protect a former high-ranking official, after he reported his superiors for possible corruption.

The UN Dispute Tribunal has sided with James Wasserstrom, who was forced out and subjected to a smear campaign.The tribunal’s hearings are open and its decisions are binding on the UN senior officials, including Ban Ki-Moon.

Bank of America whistleblower receives $14.5 million

Topics: 
Financial crisis, Victories, Financial industry, Qui tam or False Claims Act
Rating: 
0

Rick Rothacker – May 29, 2012

A former home appraiser will receive $14.5 million as part of a whistleblower lawsuit that accused subprime lender Countrywide Financial of inflating appraisals on government-insured loans, his attorneys said Tuesday.

Kyle Lagow's lawsuit sparked an investigation that culminated in a $1 billion settlement announced in February between Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and the U.S. Justice Department over allegations of mortgage fraud at Countrywide, his attorneys said in a news release. Bank of America bought Countrywide in 2008.

Ex-Olympus CEO Whistleblower Wins Multi-Million Dollar Settlement

Topics: 
Whistleblowers, Victories
Rating: 
3

Kirstin Ridley – May 29, 2012

Michael Woodford, ousted as head of Japanese camera-to-endoscope maker Olympus after blowing the whistle on one of Japan's biggest corporate frauds, on Tuesday won a likely multi-million dollar settlement of his claim for unfair dismissal.

After a night of negotiations, Woodford's lawyer Tom Linden told a London employment tribunal judge that final agreement hinged on ratification by the Olympus board at a meeting on June 8.

US Air Force commander punished for retaliating against whistleblowers

Topics: 
USA, Victories, Office of Special Counsel
Rating: 
3

Craig Whitlock – May 21, 2012

The Air Force said Monday that it had fined the former commander of the Dover Air Force Base mortuary $7,000 and suspended his top deputy for 20 days without pay for retaliating against whistleblowers, but it allowed both men to keep their jobs.

The punishment came in response to an independent federal investigation that concluded the mortuary’s leadership had wrongfully tried to fire two subordinates after they reported missing body parts, lax management and other problems at the base that handles America’s war dead.

EPA scientist who warned of caustic dust from Ground Zero wins job back

Topics: 
USA, Victories, Merit Systems Protection Board
Rating: 
2

Suzanne Goldenberg – May 7, 2012

A government scientist sacked for exposing the dangers to firefighters from the caustic air at Ground Zero in the days after 9/11 got her job back on Monday. A federal court ordered that Cate Jenkins, a chemist at the Environmental Protection Agency, be reinstated to her job with back pay.

Her lawyer said the decision, although based on matters of legal process, amounted to vindication for Jenkins's claims that the EPA had covered up the danger posed to first responders and others in lower Manhattan from the asbestos and highly corrosive dust that rose from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

E.P.A. Chemist Who Warned of Ground Zero Dust Is Reinstated

Topics: 
USA, Victories, Merit Systems Protection Board
Rating: 
0

Leslie Kaufman – May 8, 2012

A senior Environmental Protection Agency chemist who argued that she was removed from her job in retaliation for accusing the agency of underestimating the toxicity of dust at ground zero has been reinstated with back pay by an administrative board.

The federal Merit Systems Protection Board ruled late last week in Washington that the agency violated the due process rights of the chemist, Cate Jenkins, when she was fired in 2010 because she was not informed of all the charges against her.

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