Senator Grassley to Encourage Romanian Leaders to Pass Whistleblower Laws
On Tuesday, April 20th, U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) will take part in the 18th edition of the Tax, Law and Lobby Conference, which will focus on whistleblower regulation and legislative changes made to boost Romania’s use of an effective whistleblowing system. The conference is co-hosted by Business Review, the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) and the Romanian Business Leaders Association.
National leaders and whistleblower experts will converge virtually to discuss the benefits of using insiders to combat corruption and fraud in the private sector.
Romania is the first member country of the European Union to take into consideration the language NWC included in a 2018 letter, which outlined how to properly implement whistleblower protections and rewards into law.
Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), who has championed several important pieces of whistleblower legislation in Congress, will be making remarks at the conference to encourage continued passage of whistleblower protections worldwide.
Romanian Minister of Justice Stelian Ion and Member of Romanian Parliament Sebastian Burduja will participate in the conference, where they will speak about the future of Romania’s whistleblower laws and how the new legislation will be applied on a local and national scale.
Whistleblower attorney Stephen M. Kohn, partner at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, will be a featured panelist at the event, where he will speak about the importance of Romania taking the lead on whistleblowing in Europe. Kohn, who also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors at NWC, co-authored the 2018 letter that was sent to the Presidents of the European Parliament and European Union.
“The current draft of the law is groundbreaking because it includes measures that we in the United States know from practice are essential for protecting whistleblowers, including anonymity, external reporting mechanisms, and rewards for successful whistleblowers,” said whistleblower attorney Maraya Best, who serves as Attorney-Advisor for International Human Rights at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto.
“If the current draft of the bill is enacted, Romania’s law will become the gold standard for implementation of the EU Directive and hopefully other EU nations will follow their example.”
Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto has represented numerous whistleblowers from EU countries under U.S. laws, including UBS bank whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld. Birkenfeld, who will also be appearing at the conference, won the largest-ever tax whistleblower award of $104 million after uncovering massive tax evasion at UBS (Switzerland).
To register for the 18th edition of the Tax, Law and Lobby Conference, click here: https://bit.ly/3tqQYPg
