Nationwide Biofuels Fraud Whistleblower Featured on CBS Whistleblower Season Finale

“THE 100 Million Dollar Scam”

Washington, D.C. August 28, 2018– On Friday, August 31, 2018 at 9/8c, the CBS summer standout series “Whistleblower” will feature the Case of “THE 100 Million Dollar Scam” which details the story of whistleblower Alex “Sasha”Chepurko, who blew the whistle on a nationwide biofuels scam making him one of the youngest whistleblowers at age 21.

Chepurko is represented by Washington, D.C. qui tam whistleblower attorney David Colapinto, a partner in the leading whistleblower law firm of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP in Washington, D.C. Chepurko went up against Caravan Trading, a New Jersey-based company that made $50 million a year buying and selling the raw materials for making biofuel. Biofuel is a type of diesel derived from products like soybean, corn and recycled cooking oil.

While working for Caravan, Chepurko noticed that 90% of its business was with one company, which was turning the raw materials it bought from Caravan at above-market prices, into biofuel. Chepurko became suspicious and shockingly his boss confided to him that it was all a big scam. Caravan was selling finished biodiesel to the company which pretended it made biodiesel and then applied for the government incentives and tax breaks for making green energy products. Chepurko’s disclosures resulted in several individuals going to jail and the United States recouping millions of dollars for taxpayers from Caravan, and others involved in the scam, to resolve claims of fraud brought by Chepurko and pursued by Colapinto.

CBS publicity materials describe “Whistleblower” as taking “a thrilling look into the real-life David vs. Goliath stories of heroic people who put everything on the line to expose illegal and often dangerous wrongdoing when major corporations rip off U.S. taxpayers.”

“The CBS Whistleblower report demonstrates the courage and strength shown by Cherpurko who risked his personal safety going up against a multi-million-dollar criminal enterprise,” said Colapinto who has a long history of litigating whistleblower reward claims and has helped establish important whistleblower protections. The show is hosted by former judge Alex Ferrer. According to the CBS website, each episode “introduces cases in which ordinary people step up to do the extraordinary by risking their careers, their families and even their lives to ensure others are not harmed or killed by unchecked, unethical corporate greed.”

Cherpuko was just 21 years old when he faced off against Caravan Trading to blow the whistle on its $100 million nationwide biofuels fraud. This is the first known whistleblower case filed under three different qui tam whistleblower laws: the IRS whistleblower statute, the SEC whistleblower award program and the False Claims Act. The nationwide fraud scheme disclosed by Chepurko involved tax fraud, securities fraud and fraud on the EPA’s renewable fuels program.

Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto was honored by the National Law Journal as one of the top 50 plaintiff’s firms in the United States, and the only whistleblower lawyers selected. The firm successfully represented the UBS bank whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld, who won the largest whistleblower reward ever to an individual — $104 million.

Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto’s primary litigation includes False Claims Act litigation; qui tam lawsuits, Medicare and Medicaid fraud, pharmaceutical and pharmacy fraud, and procurement fraud, SEC whistleblowers, IRS whistleblowers, and foreign corrupt practices.