IRS Whistleblower Reward Program

Credit Suisse Services AG Pleads Guilty to Tax Crimes, Agrees to Pay $510M+ In Case Involving Whistleblowers

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team On May 5, the DOJ announced that Credit Suisse Services AG pleaded guilty and agreed to pay over $510 million to resolve allegations that it conspired to help wealthy Americans evade taxes through secret offshore accounts from 2010 through 2021. The whistleblowers who revealed the bank’s misconduct to the government were all former Credit Suisse employees. The...

IRS Whistleblower Office Announces New Multi-Year Operating Plan to Advance the Whistleblower Program

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team On April 18, the IRS Whistleblower Office announced its first ever multi-year operating plan aimed at expanding the reach, visibility, and impact of its Whistleblower Program. Created by Congress in 2006, the IRS Whistleblower Program has delivered more than $7.4 billion in collected proceeds and awarded over $1.3 billion to whistleblowers who helped expose...

Do Not Mess with the IRS Whistleblower Program! An American Cautionary Tale Featuring a PRC Scheme to Topple Falun Gong

When foreign agents attempt to exploit and bribe their way through the U.S. whistleblower programs, the consequences are severe. On November 19, 2024, John Chen, 71, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for acting as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) and attempting to manipulate the IRS Whistleblower Program to advance the Chinese government’s transnational repression campaign...

IRS Whistleblower Office Issues Fiscal Year 2022 Report: Challenges Persist but Program Recovers $172.7 Million Nonetheless

The IRS Whistleblower Office has released its Annual Report to Congress for the 2022 fiscal year. The report describes the tax fraud tips sent by whistleblowers to the IRS Whistleblower Program, the proceeds collected thanks to those tips, and the whistleblower awards made by the Program from October 2021 through September 2022. While the Program’s collected proceeds and whistleblower awards increased slightly...

IRS Whistleblower Office Issues Delayed and Disappointing Annual Report on Whistleblower Program in Fiscal Year 2021

The IRS Whistleblower Office has released its required Annual Report to Congress, covering fiscal year 2021.  Disappointingly, the report shows a continuing decline in proceeds collected as a result of submissions to the IRS Whistleblower Program and a continuing decline in awards paid to whistleblowers who reported tax fraud under the program. The report itself was submitted four months later than in previous years...

How Congress and the IRS Can Fulfill the Promise of the Tax Whistleblower Program

Constantine Cannon whistleblower partner Michael Ronickher wrote on the Taxpayers Against Fraud blog about three key changes the IRS could make to help its whistleblower program reach its full potential. The program, which provides rewards of 15-30% of the funds collected by the IRS because of a tip, is undeniably important. As Mike wrote, “Since 2007, the IRS has recovered $6.14 billion based on information from...

Top Ten Tax Recoveries for 2021

Our top tax recoveries for 2021 total over $7 billion, an impressive number that is due largely to just one of our top ten tax recoveries. Tax evaders were creative last year, utilizing offshore banking, good old tax fraud, and forum shopping for an accounting opinion that fits—all with the intention of cheating the IRS and, in return, the taxpaying public. IRS Criminal Investigation flexed its muscles and went...

What Maryland can Learn from the IRS on the State’s New Tax Program: Ari Yampolsky and Michael Ronickher in the Washington Post

Opening with the warning “tax cheats beware,” Constantine Cannon whistleblower attorneys Ari Yampolsky and Michael Ronickher published an opinion piece in the Washington Post detailing the provisions of Maryland’s new tax whistleblower reward program, which covers state and county tax fraud and underpayments. While New York has long allowed whistleblowers to use its state False Claims Act to bring tax claims,...

Want to Fix the Trillion Dollar Tax Gap? How Whistleblowers Can Help

Earlier this month, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles P. Rettig testified before the Senate Finance Committee, addressing the 2021 filing season and the “21st Century IRS.”  At the hearing, Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) raised the topic of the tax gap, referring to the difference between the total taxes that are legally owed, and the total taxes that are paid by individuals and entities. ...

Watch Now: Eric Havian Joins OffshoreAlert Panel with SEC, CFTC, and IRS Whistleblower Officials on Rewards for Domestic and Foreign Whistleblowers

For the third year in a row, Constantine Cannon partner Eric Havian participated in OffshoreAlert’s annual conference, vGlobal, speaking on a panel with senior leaders of the whistleblower programs at the SEC, CFTC, and IRS.  The panel, which you can watch below, “Rewarding Domestic & Foreign Whistleblowers: The Growth & Spreading Reach of U.S. Programs,” addressed the international reach of the U.S....