Professor Ventry weighs in on new whistleblower rules

Professor Dennis J. Ventry, Jr. lent his expertise to an April 5 World Wide Tax Daily report exploring whether Bradley Birkenfeld, recipient of the largest whistleblower award ever granted, might benefit from a new standard for whistleblower awards approved by Congress. The new law would allow whistleblowers who have not yet exhausted appeals to retroactively seek portions of proceeds from fines and forfeitures.

Birkenfeld, who received $104 million in 2012 for informing the IRS about tax evasion practices by his former employer, Swiss bank UBS AG, was not involved in a recent court case that preceded the new law. But he was shortchanged, Ventry said.

“His exposing all that stuff going on not only at UBS, but overseas in general, led to an unprecedented amount of law enforcement action,” Ventry told World Wide Tax Daily.

Professor Ventry is an expert in tax policy and legal ethics. His research interests include tax expenditure analysis, family taxation, professional responsibility and standards of care, tax filing and administration, tax compliance, public finance, and tax and legal history. In addition, he is Chairman of the IRS Advisory Council, and co-author on the casebook, Federal Income Taxation with Martin McMahon, Jr., Daniel L. Simmons, and Bradley T. Borden.