Whistleblower News From The Inside — April 22, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

Grassley fixes to IRS whistleblower treatment wins key committee approval — Sen. Chuck Grassley received key committee approval of his provisions including better IRS treatment of tax fraud whistleblowers, which, among other things, would allow the IRS to exchange information with whistleblowers where doing so would be helpful to an investigation.  Grassley

Attorney predictions lean toward tie in Supreme Court FCA battle — Polling of attorneys leading up to and after the arguments in Universal Health Servs., Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar found a strong feeling that the decision could be a 4-4 tie, which would leave intact the First Circuit’s decision in favor of letting the whistleblowers’ suit move forward without setting a national precedent.  Bloomberg

Snowden seeks assurance from Norway it won’t extradite him — Edward Snowden is seeking assurance that Norway won’t extradite him if he goes there to collect the PEN International Ossietzky Prize, awarded for his contribution in defending the freedom of expression.  WSJ

PSA group raided by French fraud office in emissions probe — The premises of Paris-based maker of Peugeot, Citroen and DS cars were searched by government fraud investigators as part of an broader probe into vehicle emissions, with the scrutiny sending its shares down as much as 4.5 percent.  Bloomberg

Fraud suspects from Taiwan have confessed — According to the Chinese police, forty-five fraud suspects from Taiwan who are suspected of cheating mainland Chinese by telephone from a base in Kenya have admitted guilt and will soon face trial.  NYT