Brad Birkenfeld; Whistleblower Or Hustler?

[Mr. Shaman]

"In March 2006, an American employee of UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, sent a confidential letter to a top executive.

"I wish to invoke my rights listed under the UBS Whistleblowing Protection for Employees" policy, he wrote.

With that, Bradley C. Birkenfeld fired the first shot in the historic and devastating assault on Swiss bank secrecy that reached a new milestone Wednesday. Under a legal settlement signed in Washington, Switzerland is expected to turn over the names of thousands of Americans who used secret accounts to dodge taxes, U.S. officials said.

The jail time could be tempered by the possibility of financial reward. Under IRS regulations, people who blow the whistle on tax cheaters can be eligible for rewards of up to 30 percent of any money the IRS recoups. However, an IRS notice says the agency will refuse to pay a reward if the whistleblower "is convicted of criminal conduct arising from his or her role in planning and initiating" the tax evasion.

Birkenfeld filed a claim for a whistleblower reward with the IRS in 2007, near the outset of his discussions with federal authorities, according to Dean A. Zerbe, a former tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee who is now affiliated with the National Whistleblowers Center and who has advised Birkenfeld informally.

Zerbe, who helped lawmakers write the whistleblower law, said Birkenfeld is clearly entitled to a reward that at a minimum would total tens of millions of dollars, including portions of the $780 million UBS agreed to pay the government and of the sums the IRS recoups from UBS depositors who turn themselves in as a result of the highly publicized UBS probe.

According to a court document, he once smuggled diamonds into the United States for a client by hiding them in a toothpaste tube.

He had an apartment in Geneva and a million-dollar home in Zermatt, Switzerland, and drove a BMW, according to court records.

Birkenfeld raised the issue with legal and compliance officials at the bank but got no response, according to the memorandum. In October 2005, he resigned from the bank.

In early 2006, when the bank refused to pay a bonus he was owed, he invoked whistleblower status "in response to the apparent retaliation against him," the memorandum said."

He sounds (more) like someone who was "investing" in one more big payday!​

"A federal judge on Friday ignored the request of federal prosecutors and sentenced the whistleblower who helped the U.S. government expose billions of dollars in Swiss tax shelters to 40 months in prison.

Bradley C. Birkenfeld, a former banker for Swiss banking giant UBS, helped U.S. officials uncover billions of dollars in taxpayer money in secret bank accounts.

Earlier this week, UBS agreed to turn over information on more than 4,000 accounts to the Internal Revenue Service."

 

[Mr. Shaman]

"Bradley Birkenfeld, perhaps the first Swiss banker ever to speak publicly about the famously secretive industry, provided inside information that helped uncover thousands of untaxed Swiss accounts at his former employer, UBS.

The accounts were owned by Americans and, so far, not one of their owners has gone to jail. But Birkenfeld is scheduled to enter a federal prison on Jan. 8 for a 40-month term that he thinks he doesn't deserve, he tells 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft in his first interview.

"I gave them the biggest tax fraud case in the world. I exposed 19,000 international criminals. And I'm going to jail for that?" asks Birkenfeld. When reminded by Kroft that he was an enabler for clients who broke the law, he responds, "And I am the only one going to prison. Out of 19,000 accounts and no Swiss bankers."

According to Thomas Perrelli, the associate attorney general of the United States, Birkenfeld's information helped his office get "the accounts that are the core of the fraud." The information led to UBS making a settlement with the U.S. government that included a fine of $780 million. But because Birkenfeld was not initially forthcoming about his largest American client, he was prosecuted. "If he had come forward and told us everything that he knew…in the summer of 2007, we think it's likely he wouldn't have been prosecuted," says Perrelli."

Kinda exciting....waiting-to-see which 1%ers are gonna get WHACKED!!!!!

​

 

[ASPCA4EVER]

Did Birkenfeld ever say 'WHY' he came forward...I missed some of the telecast.

Really surprising that no one else ever thought or had the desire to 'OUT' anyone else prior to this incident!

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Did Birkenfeld ever say 'WHY' he came forward...I missed some of the telecast.

HERE ya' GO!!!!!!!.....​

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Did Birkenfeld ever say 'WHY' he came forward...I missed some of the telecast.

Really surprising that no one else ever thought or had the desire to 'OUT' anyone else prior to this incident!

Things seem to be stabilizing....​

"The U.S. Justice Department is considering whether to ask a judge to reduce the jail sentence of Bradley Birkenfeld, the key informant in the U.S. tax fraud case against Swiss bank UBS AG, the New York Times said, citing a person briefed on the matter.

"Anything he can provide to us that he hasn't in the past, in particular with regard to foreign governments, would factor into our decision" on whether to issue a request for leniency, an unnamed senior government official briefed on the matter told the paper.

Birkenfeld, who is due to start serving a federal prison term of three years and four months on Friday, has been hailed by whistleblower advocates and U.S. prosecutors alike as pivotal to the case against UBS, his former employer."