Maraya Best specializes in representing whistleblowers under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Commodity Exchange Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, the IRS whistleblower law, and the False Claims Act. She has a special expertise in representing international whistleblowers. She has worked closely with whistleblowers and the investigating federal agencies in disclosing illegal activities that have occurred in numerous foreign countries.
Although almost all of her clients are anonymous and confidential, she assisted in the successful representation of Alex Chepurko, who obtained a judgment on behalf of the United States for $69.6 million in a False Claims Act qui tam lawsuit. Maraya has also provided highly effective assistance in the representation of Howard Wilkinson in his historic money laundering case.
Maraya received her JD from Northeastern University School of Law in 2018 and began her career at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto as the 2018 recipient of the highly prestigious and competitive Estelle S. Kohn Memorial Fellowship awarded by Northeastern University School of Law. She went on to worked at KKC for several years as an Associate Attorney.
After serving as an attorney with the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division for five years, where she assisted in the prosecution of hate crimes and law enforcement misconduct; led investigations of civil rights cold cases; and directed the implementation of a civil rights records act, Maraya has returned to KKC as a Partner.
Promoting International Qui Tam Whistleblowing
Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto has played an instrumental role in advancing whistleblower rights worldwide. Currently the partners represent whistleblowers from every continent on earth (except Antarctica) in pursuing whistleblower reward cases under U.S. laws.
Steve Kohn has been sponsored by the U.S. Department of State to promote whistleblowing on a world-wide scale, including special seminars and programs in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bosnia, Serbia and Thailand. He has given major keynote addresses in Peru and Greece and presented in numerous international conferences and has testified on behalf of whistleblowers before the European Parliament and the Danish Parliament. Mike Kohn has made major international presentations in Poland, South Korea and Israel. The firm filed extensive comments supporting greater whistleblower protections in the now-approved European Directive on Whistleblowing.
Whistleblower attorney Stephen M. Kohn and partners of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto regularly advise congress on crafting whistleblower laws. And play an instrumental role in drafting whistleblower protection laws, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, and the Dodd-Frank Act.
SEC & IRS Rulemaking
During the Dodd-Frank rulemaking process, our partners worked closely with the SEC to create an effective whistleblower program. Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto’s partners met personally with each of the five SEC Commissioners. They presented them with detailed reports and proposals setting forth rules that were essential to make the law work for Dodd-Frank whistleblowers as intended by Congress. Furthermore, Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto’s whistleblower attorneys seek to protect and enhance legal protections for tax fraud whistleblowers. Our firm has filed numerous internal revenue service rulemaking petitions, filed extensive briefs to the IRS and testified at IRS rulemaking hearsing to strengthen the tax whistleblower program.
In recognition of the growing importance of whistleblower litigation, The National Law Journal named the whistleblower attorney and advocacy law firm of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto as one of top fifty plaintiff’s law firms in the United States. The firm’s partners were officially named as among “America’s Elite Trial Lawyers.” In its September 29, 2014 article, “Elite Trial Lawyers: The 50 Leading Plaintiff’s Firms in America,” the National Law Journal named Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto as one of the firm’s “doing the most creative and most important work in the courtroom.”
- 2013-2020 – A-V Preeminent, Martindale-Hubbell®
- 2014 – “Elite Trial Lawyers” Designation, National Law Journal (Awarded to KKC LLP)
- 2014 – America’s Most Honored Professionals, American Registry (Awarded to KKC LLP)
- 2009 – Top Attorneys, Washington DC Super Lawyers (Awarded to KKC LLP)
- 2008 – Friend of the IEEE Award
- 2003 – “Hot List” of Plantiff’s Law Firms, National Law Journal
Read Maraya’s Publications at:
What Clients are Saying
“When you’re in danger, you need someone you can trust, who isn’t afraid, and who knows how to fight. KKC always has my back.”
“Most law firms it really is all about billable hours. For these guys it’s all about the justice.”
“Thanks [KKC] from the bottom of my heart. I think if you ever have a whistleblowing claim they are the folks to take care of it for you.”
“In my world, courage is spelled KKC. They go up against the most powerful adversaries and win.”
Maraya’s Latest Thinking
The CFTC: An Increasingly Necessary Agency for Combatting International Fraud
The Commodities Exchange Act (“CEA”) essentially provides the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) broad jurisdiction over trades and transactions involving swaps or contracts of sale of a commodity for future delivery. This means, in the commodity futures context, the CFTC is the analog of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and overall, the CEA and its promulgating rules mirror those of the SEC, including in its whistleblower program. Although few are aware of this program and even fewer understand the CEA rules when it comes to commodities, the reach of the CFTC enforcement has steadily expanded in direct correlation with changing market trends and increased commodity futures fraud. Futures contracts for commodities have been traded in the United States for the past 150 years. Federal regulation of such contracts began in the 1920s and matured in 1974 when the CFTC was created. With the shift in futures traded commodities ...
The SEC Turns Its Attention to Climate and Environmental Enforcement
Last week the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission ("SEC") announced that it would be creating a new taskforce to focus on climate and environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) enforcement. This focus reflects a growing trend of investors basing their decisions, at least in part, on the climate and environmental impacts of the companies and said companies’ ability to survive the increasing effects of global climate change. For this reason, the new SEC task force will focus on violations of Climate and ESG disclosure requirements, such as misrepresentations to the investing public as to a company’s sustainability efforts or environmental footprint. This policy change is important for whistleblowers to be aware of because a corporation’s misleading statements on these subjects are now likely to be treated as material by the SEC and may actually be prosecuted. Corporate insiders, i.e.,whistleblowers, are well-positioned to report to the SEC when they know that ...
The Netherlands Must Step Up Whistleblower Protections According to the OECD and Dutch Authorities
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, recently, the OECD published a report substantiating what whistleblower advocates and nonprofits concluded years ago: anticorruption efforts in the Netherlands have been stymied, in part due to an ineffective whistleblower system. Although the Netherlands has a whistleblower law in place, a 2015 study showed that it has not encouraged or protected whistleblowers. Eighty-five percent of the true whistleblowers who made reports under this law suffered some type of adverse consequence for reporting, and one-fourth deciding against making or continuing with a report. Now, the OECD has reported that still no foreign bribery cases have been detected and reported under this law in the Netherlands. The law has failed to provide real protection to whistleblowers. This is particularly concerning given the recent public retaliation against Jonathan Taylor, the British whistleblower who blew the whistle on the Dutch oil company SBM Offshore. SBM Offshore sued ...
Our Client Received the Largest Whistleblower Reward in World History of $104 Million
Bradley Birkenfeld broke the back of Swiss bank secrecy. He was the first Swiss banker to file a case under the IRS whistleblower law. The results were unprecedented. UBS bank (at the time the largest bank in the world) had to pay a fine of $780 million. They also had to close all known U.S. accounts, and for the first time in history, the bank turned over the names of 4450 U.S. taxpayers for prosecution in the United States. Mr. Birkenfeld obtained the largest ever individual qui tam whistleblower award in history, $104 million.
Pro Bono Public Service
Dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) was founded in 1988 by three experienced whistleblower-rights attorneys, Stephen M. Kohn, Michael D. Kohn and David K. Colapinto. Mary Jane was selected as the NWC’s first Public Interest Law Fellow, and soon became a major leader in the NWC. She currently is the NWC corporate Treasure and serves on its Board of Directors. She founded the whistleblower protection blog, and for years managed many of the NWC’s highly successful programs.