KKC Senior Special Counsel Assists TAF with FinCEN Rulemaking Comment

FinCEN published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on March 30 to establish a whistleblower program incentivizing tips on fraud-related violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, U.S. sanctions, and the Anti-Money Laundering Act. The regulations arrived more than 5 years after the program’s legislative creation. Whistleblower advocates have already expressed major concerns.

As reported by Whistleblower Network News, Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto (KKC) partnered with the National Whistleblower Center to submit a formal 19-part comment to FinCEN. More recently, KKC Senior Special Counsel Andrew Feller worked with The Anti-Fraud Coalition (TAF) attorneys on the comment it submitted on the proposed rule.

Feller co-leads KKC’s Securities and Commodities Whistleblower Group. He draws on insights from 15 years of service at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he investigated and litigated securities fraud matters as Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement. He also served on Commissioner Allison Herron Lee’s staff as principal enforcement counsel and senior policy advisor. The SEC has one of the most successful whistleblower award programs, having awarded more than $2.2 billion to whistleblowers since its inception in 2011.

“It’s exciting that FinCEN is moving forward with its whistleblower program,” Feller said, “but the rule proposal would benefit from a variety of changes to ensure that it reflects best practices, the lessons of other whistleblower programs, and the unique nature of the whistleblowers who will be drawn to FinCEN’s program.”