About Geoff Schweller
Geoff Schweller is the Communications Director for Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto (KKC). Geoff graduated from Hamilton College in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. He is also the Assistant News Editor for Whistleblower Network News.
From the Whistleblower and Qui Tam Blog
Bipartisan Bill Provides Long-Term Fix to CFTC Whistleblower Program Funding Crisis
This article originally appeared in JD Supra. Over the past few years, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Whistleblower Program has faced a funding crisis which threatens to undermine the success of the program. While a 2021 law provided a short-term fix which saved the program from collapse, the need for a long-term fix remains. Introduced in July, the bipartisan CFTC Whistleblower Fund Improvement Act of 2023 provides the long-term fix by raising a cap placed on the Fund used to finance the program. Without using any taxpayer dollars, the bill ensures that the CFTC can continue to pay out whistleblower awards and finance the operations of the Whistleblower Office. The crisis facing the CFTC Whistleblower Program is due to its success. When Congress established the program in 2010, it did not predict that it would grow in the ways that it has. It did not foresee that it would bring in such massive sanctions, and ...
Rulemaking Process a Critical Juncture for DOT’s Auto Safety Whistleblower Program
Stephen Kohn outlines the ways the DOT rulemaking process could shape the efficacy of its auto safety whistleblower program.
New AML Whistleblower Law is A Game Changer in Enforcing Russian Sanctions
Stephen M. Kohn, Esq. writes for Reuters outlining the massive impact the new AML Whistleblower Improvement Act will have in fighting Russian corruption.
Whistleblower Receives $1.5 Million from SEC
On September 20, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a $1.5 million whistleblower award to an individual who voluntarily provided the agency with original information that led to a successful SEC enforcement action and a successful action by another agency. Through the SEC Whistleblower Program, the SEC grants qualified whistleblowers 10-30% of the funds collected in an SEC enforcement action that their whistleblower disclosure contributed to. Under the program’s related action provisions, whistleblowers are also entitled to awards when their information is successfully used in an action by another agency. According to the SEC, the “information [the whistleblower] provided to the Commission was valuable, on point, and conserved Commission resources.” The SEC also notes that the whistleblower did provide ongoing assistance to the other agency. The related action provisions were the subject of a recent rule change to the SEC Whistleblower Program. On August 26, the SEC ...
Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto Founding Partners Receive Washingtonian Top Lawyer Lifetime Achievement Awards
Michael D. Kohn, Stephen M. Kohn, and David K. Colapinto, the three founding partners of the whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn, & Colapinto, have received Top Lawyer Lifetime Achievement awards from Washingtonian magazine. The Top Lawyer Lifetime Achievement award recognizes lawyers who have been featured at least ten times in the past fifteen years on the magazine’s annual Top Lawyers list. Washingtonian composes its list based upon confidential surveys of Washington D.C. based lawyers. “We are especially grateful for this ‘Top Lawyer Lifetime Achievement’ recognition from the Washingtonian magazine,” said David Colapinto on behalf of the partners. “Thanks goes to all of our whistleblower clients who place trust in us as well as everyone at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto who make representing courageous whistleblowers meaningful and exciting." Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto founded their whistleblower law firm in 1988 and have won numerous landmark decisions for whistleblowers as well as some of the largest financial rewards in history. Given their ...
IRS Whistleblower Receives $16.8 Million Award for Exposing Widespread Tax Evasion Scheme
Whistleblower attorneys Stephen M. Kohn and Dean Zerbe are pleased to announce that a joint client – who wishes to remain anonymous – received an IRS whistleblower award of $16.8 million. The whistleblower provided the IRS with information that led to an enforcement action against 86 high-wealth individuals who had engaged in a sophisticated illegal tax evasion scheme. The enforcement action resulted in nearly $70 million dollars being returned to the U.S. Treasury. “On behalf of our client and ourselves, we very much want to thank the new Director of the IRS Whistleblower Office, Mr. John Hinman, for this award for our client,” said Stephen M. Kohn, founding partner of the whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto. “A particular special thanks to Ms. Peggi Bockman of the Whistleblower Office for her hard and dedicated work on this award – and also thanks very much to Ms. Dawn Applebaum whose constant leadership and commitment to the ...