Whistleblower Protection Blog : Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

In June 2007, UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld revealed detailed information about high-profile individuals and banks, including Credit Suisse, to the United States Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service. Today, World Radio Switzerland (WRS) released their interview with Stephen M. Kohn, Birkenfeld’s attorney and Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center.  WRS also released their interview with other renowned whistleblower advocates such as Jesselyn Radack, former Justice Department Ethics Advisor, and Edward Robbins, an attorney specializing in tax controversies.

WRS reports that while he was working in Switzerland, Birkenfeld uncovered fraudulent activities of at least four Credit Suisse bankers who were helping Americans evade taxes and hide their assets.  The list includes senior manager in Credit Suisse American Operations, Marco Parenti Adami.  Currently, Bradley Birkenfeld is serving 40-months in prison.

Stephen M. Kohn said:

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Now, from the nation's leading whistleblower attorney, Stephen Martin Kohn, comes the first-ever consumer guide to whistleblowing. The Whistleblower's Handbook explains nearly all federal and state laws regarding whistleblowing and set forth twenty-one basic rules every potential whistleblower needs to know. The Whistleblower's Handbook is the authoritative reference for anyone who has ever wondered how they might blow the whistle - and, once they've done so, how to prevail. 

Author Stephen M. Kohn (Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center) will be discussing The Whistleblower's Handbook and signing copies on Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at Busboys and Poets.

The event is co-sponsored by the Zinn Education Project, Teaching for Change and the National Whistleblowers Center

Details:
Langston Room
Busboys and Poets
2021 14th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009

Pre-Order The Whistleblowers Handbook at the new NWC Book Store

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Yesterday, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) office in Atlanta, Georgia, issued an order reinstating truck driver William Beecher.  As soon as he recovers from an unrelated temporary disability, he can return to work for United Auto Delivery and Recovery and the Memphis Auto Auction. OSHA found that the owners of these two companies operate them as one business, and that both businesses, and their managers, are liable for firing Beecher in 2009. Beecher had repeatedly complained that the "rollback" truck he drove was leaking coolant. He wrote up the truck when it had a blown head gasket, and continued to note the coolant leak when he did his pretrip inspections. He was carrying extra coolant with him to refill the coolant as needed. Finally, on February 5, 2009, he refused to drive the truck on grounds that it was not safe. The boss asked him to drive another truck, and Beecher refused because he did not have a commercial drivers license (CDL), which was required for that other truck. On February 6, 2009, the companies fired him for walking off the job.

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Professionals for the Public Interest (PftPI) will be hosting an event April 4, 2011, from 9:00 am to 2:15pm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to discuss challenges to research integrity. It is called “Exploring Best Practices in Research Integrity.” It will be at the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel located at 201 North 17^th Street, Philadelphia, PA. The Department for Professional Employees at the AFL-CIO organized PftPI in 2007.

The event is free and open to the public, however registration is required. During the forum experts will talk about the challenges facing research integrity in the fields of hard science and engineering, public health, and education. Attendees can have their ideas and observations welcomed during full discussion break out sessions.

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The Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB) issued a ruling last month finding in favor of whistleblower Lavan Williams against his former employer, Domino's Pizza on claims of retaliatory firing. The ARB's decision affirms an order by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in favor of Williams. It has now been over three years since Williams filed his claim for back pay and other damages from Domino's. Williams, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, filed his complaint under the the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA). The ARB held that Williams was entitled to protection even after he refused to rat out his co-workers. The ARB also held that it was proper for the ALJ to accept into evidence a transcript of Williams' unemployment hearing. 

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Editors Debra Comer and Gina Vega want to know why ethics education in business schools is not working. Years after business schools beefed up their ethics programs, half of employees still report seeing misconduct at work. They want employees to have both the motivation to discover and remedy misconduct, and the courage to accept the risk of negative consequences to their own careers.

In the Forward, Yeshiva University professor Moses Pava reports that his business students tell him that, “corporate social responsibility is merely rhetoric designed to fool environmentalists, consumer advocates and other do-gooders.” Pava recognizes that this attitude is consistent with most of today's textbooks in business schools. Moral Courage stands in contrast. It seeks to connect “knowing” the right thing to do, and “doing” the right thing.

A series of articles examine how organizations make it hard for individuals to raise moral concerns. Financial incentives, peer pressure and a deeper issue about how we define ourselves impede most people from speaking up. Gina Vega writes about the competition between risk and rewards in an individual's decision to move from knowing to acting. She also identifies the “moral hazard” individuals face if they lack an incentive to avoid risk. In the Bernie Madoff scandal, the rewards of his ongoing scam protected him from the risk of discovery. When investors saw their accounts go up, they had no incentive to explore whether it was the result of misconduct. Putting aside the repeated efforts of one seeking SEC action, no one showed the courage to raise a concern. In our present economic crisis, those who ran irresponsible risks faced little risk, and small consequences if their risks went sour. Together, the circumstances created a moral hazard big enough for our whole economy to fall through.

In a chapter called, “For the Great Good,” Stephen Kohn writes about the benefits whistleblowers have wrought. Nixon's resignation and Clinton's impeachment; the Pentagon Papers and the collection of taxes from UBS – all flowed from the courage of individual whistleblowers. From a variety of studies, we now know that employee disclosures are the most common means by which frauds are detected. Yet, our laws and legal procedures do not yet provide the level of protection and incentives needed to draw out more potential whistleblowers. U.S. laws are uneven. They protect whistleblowers only for certain categories of concerns and activities. Actual rewards are available only for frauds against the government (including tax fraud) and now for securities and commodities violations (in the Dodd-Frank Act, enacted after Kohn wrote this article). Then Kohn compares the experience of Fredrick Whitehurst at the FBI lab and the promise of the First Amendment. Whitehurst had to risk his career to disclose that the FBI's lab had developed a culture of outcomes instead of integrity. His courage led to new legal protections for FBI whistleblowers. Yet, our Founding Fathers had foreseen the need to call on all Americans to disclose information about “any misconduct, frauds and misdemeanors.” Kohn calls for change in our workplaces and our laws. With changes in our law to protect and encourage whistleblowers, “real change is possible.”
 

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On behalf of the National Whistleblowers Center, Stephen M. Kohn and I submitted a friend-of-the-court, or "amicus," brief today in Schroeder v. Greater New Orleans Federal Credit Union, Case No. 10-31169 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.  There has been an unfortunate string of adverse decisions under the banking whistleblower protections in which the courts read the statutes literally. They would only protect disclosures to the federal agencies, and not to the employee's supervisor or other internal channels. The latest came from the Eastern District of Louisiana, and I am pleased to share our amicus brief setting out what I think is the best argument for courts to protect both internal and external disclosures. This brief makes creative use of the comments that the Chamber of Commerce and Association of Corporate Counsel have made to the US Sentencing Commission and the SEC about the importance of their internal compliance programs. It also reaches back to the 1970's mining cases that first explained how employees use the chain of command as the established channels for the first steps in making disclosures. Congress specifically approved these holdings in amendments to the mine safety act, and I think that should be enough for courts to determine that Congress really wants to offer broad protection to the full range of activities leading to the disclosures explicitly protected.

Hopefully, employees of banks, savings and loans, and credit unions will be able to use these arguments to show that they are entitled to protection from retaliation. Protecting these employees will protect us all from the devastating effects of financial abuse by bank officers.

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With the popular revolutions of Tunis and Egypt sparking interest in the power of peaceful protest, the world is on watch for the next hot spot. Yemen, Iran or Bahrain? How about Wisconsin? Yesterday hundreds of public employees and their supporters held a "citizens filibuster" in the state capitol to protest a proposal to abolish collective bargaining rights. The protesters overflowed a committee hearing room and camped out overnight. The Associated Press is reporting that the new administration in Wisconsin is proposing the elimination of collective bargaining for all state and local employees in the state, except for law enforcement and firefighters. Proponents claim that collective bargaining agreements make it harder for the state to make cuts in spending.

Unions also add a layer of protection for whistleblowers. Those public employees who have information about suspicious activities can feel more secure about disclosing that information when they know that a union grievance or arbitration process stands between management and their discharge. Civil service hearings depend on appointees of the administration and are much weaker as a protection for whistleblowers. Any government has greater integrity when it protects free speech and due process. Doing away with collective bargaining rights will be a victory for those public officials who want to abuse their power and keep the employees too afraid to speak up.

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The U.S. Department of Labor, for the first time, has proposed making its whistleblower protection program a separate line item. The Department released its proposed budget yesterday. It includes $21 million in a separate line for the whistleblower program. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis answered questions in a live chat yesterday. The Houston Examiner participated and has released a portion of the transcript.  In that transcript, Secretary Solis says that the budget proposal is an increase of $6 million -- a 40% increase. She explains that this increase is to hire 45 more investigators to address the increased workload. This workload comes in part from the new laws that contain whistleblower protections, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Food Safety Modernization Act and the healthcare law. Secretary Solis adds:

Separating it into a separate budget activity will also allow increased transparency for the work conducted by whistleblower investigators and the Office of Whistleblower Protection Programs. We recently completed an internal evaluation of the whistleblower program and are reviewing recommendations to improve oversight and management of the program.

It is remarkable that the whistleblower budget is increasing at a time when the overall budget is being cut. Hopefully, legislative leaders of both parties will agree that whistleblower protection is a good way to increase accountability and worthy of the increase.

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Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a member of the National Whistleblowers Center’s Board of Directors and founder and leader of the No FEAR Coalition, will be appearing before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) tomorrow, February 9, 2011, objecting to her removal from the Environmental Protection Agency in January of 2009.

This is another case against the agency by Dr. Coleman-Adebayo, who is now defending herself from retaliation and the failure of the agency to provide her with reasonable accommodation as a disabled person.  Dr. Coleman-Adebayo alleges that the continuous harassment and discriminatory management culture inside the EPA that has continued unabated against her since she first won a court victory in 2000 for retaliation based on race, sex, and color discrimination.

Dr. Coleman-Adebayo stated in her press release issued today, February 8, 2011,

"What's the difference between threatening phone calls, threats of rape, name calling, being assigned responsibilities outside one's expertise, being denied requests for reasonable accommodation, and being fired for reasons of disability? They're all from different chapters of a playbook that will stop at nothing to punish, shun, impugn and marginalize whistleblowers."

The press release is available below:

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CNBC is airing a special series by Eamon Javers entitled "Bounty Hunters" this week. You can watch Mr. Javers' report on Tuesday, February 8 and Wednesday, February 9, on "Squawk Box", "Squawk On The Street", and "Power Lunch." On Thursday, February 10 and Friday, February 11, he will report on "Squawk Box" and "Squawk On The Street."

Mr. Javers interviewed NWC Executive Director, Stephen M. Kohn and UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld, among others. This series is very timely in light of the rulemaking currently in progress for implementing the Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions. I look forward to watching the rest of the pieces.

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Today, Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia postponed Scott Bloch’s sentencing once again until Thursday, March 10, 2011. Prosecutors urged the judge to reconsider her ruling last week that the charge of lying to Congress carries a one-month minimum jail sentence.

Scott Bloch was the former head of the Office of Special Counsel. He pled guilty in April to contempt of Congress for lying about his effort to erase files from government computers. Bloch withheld information from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during the Bush administration. Federal investigators charged him, the nation’s former top protector of whistleblowers, with criminal contempt of Congress.  

His sentencing has been continuously postponed because his charge is rare and a verdict has been difficult to determine. Last week, in her 13-page ruling Judge Robinson declared that the dispute was a novel one with no published opinion on what the sentencing for contempt of Congress is.

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