The arrest
last week of former IRS employee Dennis Lerner stands out for a particular
reason to Taxfraudblog.com: The government said he had revealed the identity of
an IRS whistleblower.
Such a breach
of whistleblower confidentiality by a government employee is
unprecedented. As Special Agent Robert
O’Malley of the Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
(TIGTA) said, “Any allegation of corruption, self-dealing, or
inappropriate disclosure of confidential information is a potential violation
of the public trust and could erode the public’s confidence in the American
system of tax administration.”
Lerner was charged
with breaching conflict of interest laws and illegally divulging privileged IRS
information.
He worked as
an international examiner for the New York IRS office from 2010 to 2011, during
which time he headed the audit of an international bank that was launched on the
basis of whistleblower information regarding nearly $1 billion in unreported
income. Lerner left the IRS in the fall
of 2011 and went to work for the same bank he had audited while at the IRS,
which the New York Times reported was German Commerzbank.
While working
for the bank, Lerner continued to unethically seek out information regarding
the IRS investigation, and revealed the identity of the whistleblower to his
new employer, violating IRS whistleblower confidentiality, according to the
government.
For more information on whistleblower protection and IRS
whistleblower rules, see here.
