Kostelanetz counsel Usman Mohammad’s oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was discussed in a recent Law360 article titled, “Dutch Bank Exec Gave IRS Good Tax Tip, DC Circ. Judge Says.” The appeal deals with the denial of a whistleblower award to Kostelanetz client Joseph Insinga, an executive at a Dutch bank who provided internal bank credit applications to the IRS. (Mr. Insinga passed away in 2021, but Kostelanetz continues to represent his estate in the matter.)
The article, written by Anna Scott Farrell, notes that D.C. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett said during oral argument that “it seemed” that Insinga delivered “valuable information to the Internal Revenue Service that allowed it to determine that certain transactions involving a bank-run company were disguised loans,” and that this information was “gift-wrapped” evidence.
The article notes that during oral argument:
An attorney for Insinga’s estate, Usman Mohammad of Kostelanetz LLP, told the court that the IRS used the Dutch bank credit applications to prove the ‘subterfuge,’ … at the heart of the tax scheme. An IRS chief counsel memo saying that the type of transaction at issue was disguised as a loan cites the credit applications ‘because that was the most direct evidence’ of ‘a sham transaction,’ Mohammad said. The IRS presented the credit applications first in its case against the taxpayers because it disproved the taxpayers’ intentions and proved the nature of the transactions were loans, Mohammad said. ‘Everybody knows you put your best evidence forward in your argument first,’ Mohammad said.
Along with Usman Mohammad, partners Bryan Skarlatos and Caroline Rule represent Mr. Insinga’s estate.
The full article can be found here.
