KKC Founding Partner Featured on KATU 2 ABC

Stephen M. Kohn, leading whistleblower attorney and founding partner of Kohn, Kohn, and Colapinto, LLP, has received extensive press coverage of his new book, Rules for Whistleblowers: a Handbook for Doing What’s Right. In his new book, Kohn, who is the most published author on whistleblowing, lays out 37 “rules” on safely navigating a whistleblower case and qualifying for a reward through one of the various government programs. .

Kohn joined KATU 2 ABC in Portland, Oregon to discuss his book and the culture around whistleblowing. In the interview, Kohn helped the audience understand who exactly whistleblowers are – and how important they are. “This is not small stuff,” Kohn said, “when you see massive money laundering, bribery, investor fraud costing people millions.”

In other words, whistleblowers are not the so-called ‘tattle-tails’ they are sometimes misconstrued as; they are brave citizens who witness extreme misconduct and recognize their democratic duty to speak up.

“These are real harms to real people, undermining democracy, undermining the rule of law, undermining safety, so this is a major issue,” Kohn said. “If you look at the largest fraud cases, there is almost always a whistleblower. These people are true heroes and put everything on the line, and they’re totally misunderstood through stereotypes.”

In the segment, Kohn also discussed how Whistleblower laws have transformed to better protect Whistleblowers within his career. “When I started, it was a wasteland. The laws were terrible. But it is amazing because over the last 40 years, as congress saw how important these disclosures are, they strengthened the laws.”

Congress passed legislation like the False Claims Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the Anti-Money Laundering Act all of which have enabled and incentivized whistleblowers to come forward.

“Now for the first time you have what I call super sonic laws. They permit the whistleblower to be anonymous and confidential. If the boss doesn’t know who you are, they can’t retaliate. They require the federal government to maintain these confidentialities… Under the new laws, you get compensated for the value of your information. You never have to suffer anything. No one has to know you were a whistleblower, yet you can qualify for large multi-million dollar rewards.”

Learn about your rights as a whistleblower by ordering Rules for Whistleblowers or reviewing the 37 rules online.