Why Is the Whistleblower Who Exposed the Massive UBS Tax Evasion Scheme the Only One Heading to Pris

[april]

whistleblowers.org

Although Attorney General Holder has had to recuse himself,
because he once was a bank—he once was a lawyer for UBS.

 A former banker for the Swiss giant UBS who blew the whistle
on the biggest tax-evasion scheme in US history is preparing
to head to prison tomorrow to begin serving a forty-month
federal sentence. Bradley Birkenfeld first came forward to US
authorities in 2007 and began providing inside information on
how UBS was helping thousands of Americans hide assets in
secret Swiss accounts. We speak with his attorney, Stephen
Kohn, the executive director of the National Whistleblowers
Center. [includes rush transcript]

Stephen Kohn, Bradley Birkenfeld’s attorney and executive
director of the National Whistleblowers Center.


    * Read Juan's article on the UBS case

JUAN GONZALEZ: A former banker for the Swiss giant UBS who
blew the whistle on the biggest tax evasion scheme in US
history is preparing to head to prison tomorrow to begin
serving a forty-month federal sentence.

Bradley Birkenfeld first came forward to US authorities in
2007 and began providing inside information on how UBS was
helping thousands of Americans hide assets in secret Swiss
accounts. UBS pleaded guilty last February and paid a $780
million fine. UBS has also agreed to turn over the names of
the nearly 4,500 of its American clients to the Justice
Department. That’s only a portion of the 19,000 it claims the
secret accounts of Americans it held. Meanwhile, thousands of
other Americans with unreported offshore accounts have been
allowed to belatedly disclose them and pay civil penalties. 



















Although Attorney General Holder has had to recuse himself,
because he once was a bank—he once was a lawyer for UBS.

[Junkdrawer]

1. Here's the link to the DemocracyNow Story...

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/7/why_is_the_whistleblower_who_exposed

[Frosty1]

14. Here s the link to take action

The NWC is asking the public to send a letter to Attorney General Holder that calls for an immediate review of Mr. Birkenfeld's case and warns that a jail term for Mr. Birkenfeld is "clearly not the way to encourage other whistleblowers to step forward." Please contact Lindsey Williams if you would like to arrange an interview with Mr. Birkenfeld and/or his attorneys.
http://www.capwiz.com/whistleblowers/issues/alert/?alertid=14501711&type=ML

[valerief]

2. Blowing the whistle on the very rich is a crime. Not a crime on the books, but a crime nonetheless.

[Cirque du So-What]

6. I'm not condoning the regicide that occurred during the French Revolution

...but I understand.

[valerief]

10. Oh, I sooooooo understand, too. nt

[Craftsman]

7. Bingo

He crossed the powers that be and is being made to pay.

[kenny blankenship]

3. I'd bet Eliot Spitzer has some insights into why

but he might be shy about discussing it in public.

[Junkdrawer]

4. Answer: Object Lesson for any other would-be Whistle Blower..

Clearly.

[glitch]

5. It is disgusting. nt

[Rapanui1]

8. The corporate justice at action

Unfortunately we might have two parties(one overtly corporative and one covertly corporative) however barring a few like Barney sanders we have all corporative thugs in power. The best example is how Nancy Pelosi refused to even say a word against Bush.

[Celebration]

9. Look, he did come forward, but did not tell the whole truth

When you are a whistleblower, you sign agreements that say you are telling everything you know. That way, he would not be prosecuted for his crimes.

Guess what? He held back and tried to protect one of his former clients, who turned around and ratted out on him.

Now, there could be some conspiracy around this, but let me tell you. You do NOT fool around and hold things back from the government when you told them you would come clean.

Do.not.do.that!

[DisgustedInMN]

11. Welcome to the United Corporation of America n/t

[Democracyinkind]

12. Birkenfeld a whistleblower? Come on. He was not interested in busting the UBS-scheme, he invented it

and after he hid the illegal shit he did himself he figured it would be better to pretend that he was nothing else than a concerned employee.

Whistleblower my ass. Master-criminal willing to sell out his partners in crime to get away with his own crimes. No mercy or respect for that. As for dismantling the UBS; we had the chance to do that, but the folks in Washington had other ideas, went for it and got what they wanted. They surely weren't interested in forcing UBS to act ethically or even legally.

[kgnu_fan]

13. knr