And in 1978, in connection with a merger between the National Student Marketing Company and an insurance holding company, he ruled that Federal securities regulations did not require lawyers to disclose fraud by their clients.

The Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform law of 2002 did increase the reporting percentage of those who are under a government mandate to disclose fraud.

But a proposal letting lawyers disclose fraud by a client if that client was using the lawyer's services to commit the fraud was defeated.

Federal employees daring to disclose fraud and abuse in their bureaucracies have been under virtual siege, isolated as pariahs and shipped off under gag orders to lesser jobs in far-off places.

The expert, Dr. Jonathan M. Fishbein, said he felt that the trial was deficient, that department officials had covered up the flaws, and that it was his obligation to disclose such fraud.

I have an obligation to disclose economic fraud that would lead to economic risk to the shareholders of a public company.

But a proposal allowing lawyers to disclose financial fraud by a client if that client was using the lawyer's services to commit the fraud was defeated 255 to 151 yesterday.

The tough elections laws in Florida were enacted in 1998 after a Miami Herald series disclosed widespread fraud in the Miami mayoral election the year before.

Under the federal False Claims Act, some whistle-blowers have received millions of dollars in rewards for disclosing large-scale fraud.

Under a related proposed provision, the bar association would make it clear that a lawyer could disclose financial fraud by a client if that client was using the lawyer's services to commit the fraud.