Bloomberg Tax reported on a whistleblower case filed by Kirby McInerney LLP in an article by reporter Michael Bologna entitled “New York Said to Be Cheated of Millions in Tax by Headhunter.”  The article can be found here. 

The law firm of Kirby McInerney LLP announced today a $105 million settlement in a case the firm filed on behalf of its whistleblower client against hedge fund billionaire Thomas Sandell and his business Sandell Asset Management Corporation.  The settlement is the largest income tax recovery under the New York False Claims Act.

Major Wall Street banks have taken part in a more than decadelong, multibillion-dollar scheme to manipulate the benchmark prices used to value credit default swap contracts at settlement, New Mexico's State Investment Council has alleged in a new proposed antitrust class action.  
 

Did you know there is more than one False Claims Act? States all across the country passed their own versions, with some being even more robust than the original law!

On today’s Fraud in America, we examined New York’s False Claims Act, which has a provision allowing whistleblowers to alert the state to tax frauds. Randy Fox and David Koenigsberg are two lawyers who’ve won big tax cases, recovering millions of dollars for the state. They discuss how the New York False Claims Act works, how these cases are different from typical False Claims Act cases, and whether this law could work at a federal level.

“Kirby played an integral role in this case and assumed significant risk… Kirby’s work was at a very high level [and] Kirby’s work greatly benefited the Class.”

“Let me just say… that this has been an extraordinarily well-tried case. I want to thank counsel for both sides and your supporting staffs for your courtesies to the bench. I was very impressed by the fact that you were all so very well prepared with the demonstratives and the binders, etc…. it was all expertly – expertly – choreographed.”

KM received the highest available commendations from the City of New York four years in a row for its work on the AWP Litigation. In each of those four years, KM’s efforts on the City’s behalf received the overall rating of “excellent”. The City elaborated, “Kirby did a truly excellent job and the results reflect that.”

“[KM] represented us diligently and successfully. Throughout [KM’s] representation of our firm, [KM’s] commitment and attention to client concerns were unimpeachable.”