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The street crime-fighting record of Sheriff Wells was praised, but there were a number of allegations over the years that he mixed public and private business. Sheriff Wells was an advisor to Florida governor Jeb Bush. When George W. Bush appointed a new U.S. attorney, Paul I. Perez, Wells met with Perez to express his “opinion that Mr. Del Fuoco needed to be closely supervised.” According to the St. Petersburg Times “given the history of investigation into the Sheriff’s Office, Perez’s visit put him in a position where it could have appeared he was being influenced by Wells, an expert on legal ethics says.”

In 2002, Del Fuoco was still working on the sheriff’s case, but was spending most of his time investigating corrupt police officers in another city. So, when he discovered a black vehicle watching his home he assumed that it was as a result of that case. However, it was quickly discovered that a Manatee sheriff’s employee had run Del Fuoco’s tag numbers through the Florida Crime Information Center (FCIC) computer in order to get his home address and other personal information. Del Fuoco, concerned for his family, repeated asked Perez for protection, but received nothing for those efforts.

Out of frustration that the DOJ had done nothing to protect his family, Del Fuoco filed a lawsuit against the Sheriff and some of his employees for illegally accessing law enforcement data to retaliate against him for prosecuting Delta Squad members. The lawsuit “ helped poison Del Fuoco’s relations with supervisors, who felt he had acted rashly.” Del Fuoco’s lawsuit also helped spur more allegations involving the Manatee Sheriff’s Office to be reported to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. However, in May 2003, Del Fuoco was transferred from the criminal to civil division, all contemporaneous with filing a lawful complaint of whistleblower retaliation with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). Del Fuoco considered his demotion to be in retaliation for filing the lawsuit against the politically connected sheriff. In fact, shortly after Del Fuoco was removed from the investigation into Sheriff Wells the investigation of Wells was dropped and the investigators were told that since Wells “swings a big bat,” there “would be no further investigations targeting him.” Del Fuoco resigned his position at the DOJ in August 2005.

Please click here to read a letter dated April 26, 2004 from Attorney Stephen M. Kohn to former Attorney General John Ashcroft detailing the improper and illegal harassment suffered by Mr. Del Fuoco and his family.

The National Whistleblowers Center hopes that the Senate Judiciary Committee conducts a full investigation into whether or not nominee Robert E. O’Neill retaliated against whistleblower Jeffery J. Del Fuoco for having the guts to stand up to a corrupt, politically connected sheriff. If the committee concludes that O’Neill illegally retaliated against a whistleblower, then they should not approve of his nomination.

Related Articles:

“Robert O’Neill nominated for U.S. attorney” St. Petersburg Times, June 9, 2010

“Was Manatee sheriff a target of prosecution or persecution?” St. Petersburg Times, March 29, 2008

“Former Manatee County sheriff merits closer scrutiny” St. Petersburg Times, April 4, 2008

April 26, 2004 letter from Attorney Stephen M. Kohn to former Attorney General John Ashcroft

CNBC reports on another event last Friday. The SEC awarded $1 million to Glen Kaiser and Karen Kaiser who provided information that helped the SEC win an insider trading case against Pequot Capital. CNBC reports that this award was the largest paid by the SEC for information in an insider trading case.

"It won't take very many whistleblowers in the large brokerage houses to win their cases," Kohn adds, "in order for people to get the message that anyone sitting in that room with you may become a multimillionaire by turning in your fraud. The beauty of this law is essentially it uses greed to fight greed."CNBC provides a link to NWC's announcement of the Dodd-Frank whistleblower protections.

The attorneys wrote:

Mr. Birkenfeld's whistleblowing put a big dent in these secret offshore accounts, but there is lots more out there. It took an insider to blow the whistle the first time and it is going to take another insider to do it again as account holders, especially the most flagrant tax evaders, are now moving monies to banks with even greater secrecy. When the government cannot stop offshore tax evasion, it is the honest American taxpayer who has to foot the bill.

The Forbes piece appeared the day before April 15, the deadline for Americans to file their taxes.  Mr. Birkenfeld filed his official petition for clemency today, and the National Whistleblowers Center has launched an international letter writing campaign on behalf of Mr. Birkenfeld. To write a letter, click here.

Mr. Kohn and Mr. Zerbe also submitted a direct appeal to President Obama, requesting that he pardon Mr. Birkenfeld on Tax Day as a symbol of support for the American taxpayers. According to Birkenfeld’s attorneys: 

Mr. Birkenfeld has served enough time. Today is the day for President Obama to use his pardon power to ensure that ‘justice’ does not come at the cost of what is in the best interest of the American taxpayers.

*Philip Barrett (NWC Intern) & Meryl Grenadier (NWC Fellow) contributed to this post

Mr. Kohn discusses in detail the “poison pills” that exist in the current version of S. 372, and how these provisions will discourage national security employees from coming forward and how hurdles included in the bill make it virtually impossible to obtain a finding in their favor. He also pointed out that individual Americans, who contacted their Senators individually out of concern for our nations security, have created much of the public focus on this bill.

Visit Boiling Frogs Post to hear the entire podcast.

*Meryl Grenadier (NWC fellow) contributed to this post.

American Expert Stephen Kohn Says that Montenegro Needs to Protect Employees Who Speak Out about Corruption

Podgorica – No fight against corruption will be effective if the information does not surface to cure the state agencies and large companies, Stephen Kohn, director of the U.S. National Whistleblowers Center said yesterday.  "Whistleblowers" are people who report corruption and then risk losing their jobs.

Kohn has recommended that Montenegro legally protect and encourage employees to report fraud and business practices.  Reports made by "whistleblowers" in the United States  have became one of the main mechanisms for the protection of taxpayers' money.

Kohn gave a lecture to the Directorate for Human Resources. He pointed out that the U.S. has more than 50 laws that protect and encourage insiders to speak on contentious matters and that any democratic government should support them.

"If Montenegro moves to protect the 'whistleblowers', we must face the fact that the government should protect them, even though her work may appear in a bad light," said Kohn.

He said that the reports of "whistleblowers" are the most common way to tackle corruption in the United States, and their protection is one indicator of how ready a democratic society is to protect the right to free speech.

Kohn arrived in Montenegro three days ago.  He has already heard that there are many insiders, but did not say from whom he received the information and who are the Montenegrin insiders.
"The ball is in your backyard," said Kohn, for Montenegro to design and adopt a precise law that protects the brave individuals.

"Employees who have the courage to uncover corruption or danger to the environment, need to be protected according to custom," said the American expert, "otherwise you would watch them ruin their careers."

He pointed out that "whistleblowers" in the United States can be motivated by an award of 15 to 33 percent of the money that states recover through their reports.

"There is no question that the protection of whistleblowers is, in fact, the protection of people," said Kohn, who was represented whistleblowers in world famous cases, such as the bombing of the World Trade Center and the case of O. J. Simpson.

Kohn is an attorney representing fifty employees in government agencies, including officers of the federal police.  He held his lecture at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy in Montenegro.