The ancient grunts’ wisdom plays out again for Tom Prescott, T. C. Memo. 2025-121, filed 11/19/25.  Tom was a whistleblower who was third to jump on Target A, but, relying on a phonecall and meeting with an attorney in the Tax Division at DOJ, claims Reg. Section 301.7623-4(c)(4) tiebreaker rule should get him a piece of the reward, all of which was awarded to WB-1 and WB-2.

Except.

WB-1 and WB-2 got there long before Tom blew, Tom’s gen on the other participants in the dodge was useless (see T. C. Memo. 2025-121 at p. 2, footnote 2), DOJ doesn’t have to dish on grand jury proceedings (one of Target A’s cronies went down, leading to Target A entering into a DPA and disgorging) so no deposition of DOJ attorney.

Tom’s claim that maybe so might could be DOJ relied on some of Tom’s stuff founders on the record rule, Van Bemmelen, and the regs.

“The WBO’s conclusion is supported by the governing regulation. There is no indication here that CI ‘initiate[d] a new action, expand[ed] the scope of an ongoing action, or continue[d] to pursue an ongoing action, that the IRS would not have initiated, expanded the scope of, or continued to pursue, but for the information provided.’ See Treas. Reg. § 301.7623-2(b)(1). The regulation makes clear that a whistleblower’s information does not ‘substantially contribute[] to an action’ where the IRS simply ‘analyzes the information provided or investigates a matter raised by the information,’ when that matter was already on the IRS’s radar screen. Id. As far as the record reveals, that is an apt description of what occurred here.” T. C. Memo. 2025-121, at p. 14.

And the meeting with the DOJ attorney? “The fact that petitioner’s information appeared sufficiently relevant to trigger a meeting does not establish that his information in fact assisted DOJ in any way, much less that it ‘substantially contributed’ to the recovery of proceeds from Target A. A whistleblower does not ‘substantially contribute’ to an action simply by virtue of submitting his information to an investigating agent. Treas. Reg. § 301.7623-2(b)(1).” T. C. Memo. 2025-121, at p. 15.