Michael Ronickher
PARTNER | HE, HIM, HIS
in | Office: 202 935 6076 | Direct: 202 935 5446
mike@whistleblower.law
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Michael Ronickher is a partner at Whistleblower Partners. He represents whistleblowers in various industries, including in the healthcare, defense, and securities industries, and he uses his background as a civil tax enforcement attorney at the Department of Justice to assist whistleblowers in financial frauds and tax evasion matters.
Mike currently represents dozens of whistleblowers in litigation and sealed investigations under agency programs and the federal and state False Claims Acts.
His clients have helped stop frauds ranging from government contracting violations stemming from substandard materials or cybersecurity failings to various healthcare billing frauds involving everything from unbundling fraud to Medicare Part C and the Anti-Kickback Statute.
Mike also draws on a near-decade of experience litigating tax and financial stimulus frauds at the Department of Justice to represent numerous whistleblowers bringing the SEC evidence of securities fraud or Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations.
He also advocated for the creation of FinCEN’s anti-money laundering (AML) whistleblower program and represents clients who have submitted tips regarding compliance failures that have led to hundreds of millions of dollars in illegally laundered funds. He also is a leader in the firm’s representation of whistleblowers who have used the IRS’s whistleblower program to expose tax fraud or avoidance. These whistleblowers have brought forward information about a wide range of schemes that add up to billions of dollars in tax avoidance. Mr. Ronickher also currently represents clients in several U.S. Tax Court cases challenging IRS whistleblower award determinations.
“I’m inspired by my clients, who are often making the most difficult decision of their professional career. I’m honored to help them figure out how to do the right thing in the face of serious risk.”
Mike graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School, where he was a Public Interest Fellow and co-editor of the Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He completed his undergraduate studies at Dartmouth College, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in Comparative Literature.
As a whistleblower attorney, Mike has been awarded distinction as a Law360 Rising Star, as well as recognition in Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers. While a trial attorney at DOJ, he received the Tax Division Outstanding Attorney Award on three separate occasions. Most meaningfully, he was honored with two awards from his client for his work in tax shelter enforcement on their behalf: the IRS Mitchell Rogovin Award and the IRS Lucite Award, as part of the trial team on the Wells Fargo Tax Shelter Trial.
Prior to law school, Mike worked as an editor on pre-med and pre-nursing textbooks with the life sciences publisher Benjamin Cummings.
Most weekends, Mike can be found either on a soccer field or beside it, cheering on his two girls.
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United States ex rel. Taylor v. Kaiser Permanente, No. 3:21-cv-03894 (N.D. Cal.): Lead counsel for relator Dr. James Taylor in his False Claims Act lawsuit alleging healthcare billing fraud by Kaiser Permanente
United States ex rel. Ross v. Independent Health Association, No. 1:12-cv-00299 (W.D.N.Y.): Lead counsel for whistleblower Teresa Ross in the litigation of her healthcare fraud False Claims Act case against multiple defendants. The case partially settled against Group Health Cooperative in 2020, and the government has intervened in the remaining case against several other defendants.
Represented James Glenn, who in 2019 became the first-ever successful cybersecurity whistleblower when he settled his case alleging that Cisco Systems had knowingly sold video surveillance equipment with serious security flaws to various federal, state, and local government agencies.
Served as lead counsel on numerous high-profile litigations at DOJ, including in cases involving complex tax avoidance or reduction schemes. For example, he helped develop the government’s defense against so-called “previously taxed income” (PTI) tax shelters that were being used to shelter the income from $870 million, and he served on a trial team that successfully challenged $115 million in deductions from SILO (Sale-In, Lease-Out) tax shelter transactions.
While at DOJ, worked closely with the IRS Whistleblower Office to defend it in a case involving a tax whistleblower’s tip that potentially pointed to over $500 million in tax fraud. Mike also defended a challenge to the IRS’s Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, and spearheaded the Tax Division’s litigation concerning the Section 1603 grant program, which provided a federal subsidy for clean energy investments. He independently handled the first such case to go to trial and later led the Government’s trial team in a $260 million case regarding the valuation of the sale-leaseback of a $1.65 billion wind farm.
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Comments on the North American Securities Administrators Association’s (NASAA) Model Whistleblower Award and Protection Act (June 30, 2020) (with Eric Havian and Chris McLamb)
“AML Enforcement Needs More Whistleblowers,” American Banker (January 7, 2019) (with Eric Havian)
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“Insider, Competitor, Analyst, Doe: Who’s Your Whistleblower?” Federal Bar Association Qui Tam Conference (February 22, 2024) (panelist)
Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund panel as one of the authors of the amicus brief for Senator Grassley about the Supreme Court argument in Supervalu (April 21, 2023)
“Focus on Medicare Part C,” 2022 ABA Civil False Claims Act and Qui Tam Enforcement Virtual Institute (September 14, 2022) (moderator)
Testimony supporting a bill in the D.C. Council that would permit tax cases under the District’s False Claims Act (2018)
Litigation Involving Tax-Exempt Organizations; Panelist; D.C. Bar Association Conference (2011)
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The Anti-Fraud Coalition’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
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Super Lawyers (2023-2024)
Best Lawyers (2022-2024)
Law360, Rising Star (2019)
Department of Justice Tax Division Outstanding Attorney Awards (2010, 2013, 2015)
IRS Lucite Award for work on the Wells Fargo Tax Shelter Trial (2010)
Rogovin National Outstanding Support to the Office of Chief Counsel Award (2009)
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Standford Law School (2008)
Dartmouth College (2002)