ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Blowing the Whistle on Bank Fraud
How the Process Works
The government rewards whistleblowers who aid prosecutors in going after fraud. A number of agencies maintain whistleblower programs but when the fraud is related to banks and other federally insured financial institutions, the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (“FIRREA”) and Financial Institutions Anti-Fraud Enforcement Act of 1990 (“FIAFEA”) in particular offer rewards to whistleblowers with original information about certain illegal conduct by financial institutions and their employees. If you have original information of bank fraud in California call the FIRREA whistleblower attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. today at (415)441-8669 and we can help. Our lawyers can organize your information into a whistleblower application or declaration under the relevant rules with the goal of you receiving a reward for your efforts.
In general, the key features of the FIRREA/FIAFEA whistleblower program are:
- To submit a FIRREA whistleblower claim, the whistleblower submits a confidential declaration, under oath, setting forth a specific set of facts about the alleged fraud, to the Attorney General. The declaration cannot be based on information that has been publicly disclosed, unless the declarant is the original source of that information.
- The declaration is sealed and confidential during the government’s investigation and in some cases a longer period of time. Within one year of the whistleblower’s declaration filing date, the Department of Justice must provide a written notice of the investigation’s status.
- If the declaration gives rise to FIRREA liability and the government obtains a recovery as a result, then the whistleblower is in line for an award. A FIAFEA whistleblower may receive a reward of 20 percent to 30 percent of the first $1,000,000 recovered, 10 percent to 20 percent of the next $4,000,000 recovered, and 5 percent to 10 percent of the next $5,000,000 recovered, up to a maximum of $1.6 million.
Bank fraud actionable under FIRREA includes:
- Money laundering;
- Bad loan underwriting/servicing violations;
- Bookkeeping violations;
- Mail fraud;
- Wire fraud;
- Illegal gifts in exchange for issuing loans;
- Embezzlement or misapplication of funds by a bank officer or employee;
- False statements on loan applications;
- Defrauding or attempting to defraud a bank;
- False statements and overvaluing of securities;
- Presenting a false claim to the government; and
- Concealment of assets from a government conservator, receiver or liquidator of a bank.
Your information may lead to more than one kind of whistleblower application and our lawyers will help determine the best way for your case to proceed and prepare the required application or complaint. We represent whistleblowers in cases brought under the False Claims Act for false claims for government payments; Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whistleblower cases for securities fraud (related to stocks, bonds, private placements and variable annuities for example); Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower cases for tax fraud, particularly offshore tax avoidance schemes; and Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) cases involving fraud in the trading of commodities, futures, options, currencies and virtual currencies (like Bitcoin). Most government whistleblower programs protect you from employer retaliation for blowing the whistle on fraud and our attorneys can represent you in any case for retaliation or wrongful termination as well.
Contact Us
If you have information regarding a whistleblower/qui tam case in San Francisco or elsewhere in California involving bank fraud under FIRREA/FIAFEA, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Whistleblower Program, the Securities and Exchange Commission Whistleblower Program, False Claims Act cases, the Internal Revenue Service Whistleblower Office, the FINRA Whistleblower Office and the California False Claims Act, contact Ingrid M. Evans and the other whistleblower attorneys at Evans Law Firm at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. Our attorneys also have experience with complex financial contracts and large insurance companies. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We also handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance, equity indexed life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
