This almost makes some kind of sense. The "whistleblower award" he got was the percentage of recovery the IRS pays as a bounty for intelligence on tax avoidance schemes; it's a portion of the money he actually helped recover for the government. There is a rational case to make for someone being both fully culpable for wrongdoing while still remaining entitled to bounties they've satisfied.
For another complicated IRS recovery bounty case, see the story about Vanguard's "internal whistleblower" who is making the case to the IRS that their cost-saving structure is an unfair advantage, and that they owe taxes on those savings to the government. If that "whistleblower" prevails, he'll have harmed the retirement savings of tens of millions of Americans, all of whom benefit from Vanguard's novel structure. But there you go!
As for this guy's superiors not being prosecuted, yeah, that sucks. The prosecutors can only make the cases they can make; this guy confessed.
For another complicated IRS recovery bounty case, see the story about Vanguard's "internal whistleblower" who is making the case to the IRS that their cost-saving structure is an unfair advantage, and that they owe taxes on those savings to the government. If that "whistleblower" prevails, he'll have harmed the retirement savings of tens of millions of Americans, all of whom benefit from Vanguard's novel structure. But there you go!
As for this guy's superiors not being prosecuted, yeah, that sucks. The prosecutors can only make the cases they can make; this guy confessed.