Whistleblower on Secret Offshore Bank Accounts Sentenced to Prison:

[amborin]

Former Banker for UBS Seeks Shorter Sentence

The former UBS private banker in prison after helping to uncover tax evasion by wealthy Americans is asking President Obama for a shorter sentence.
The former banker, Bradley C. Birkenfeld, whose information helped the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service crack down on offshore tax evasion services sold by UBS, plans to petition for a commutation, his lawyers said on Wednesday.

Mr. Birkenfeld, an American who worked at the bank’s cross-border division in Geneva for about five years, entered a prison in Pennsylvania in August to begin a 40-month sentence for conspiring to defraud the government by helping wealthy Americans evade taxes through UBS’s offshore private bank.
Since then, he and his lawyers have conducted a campaign intended to portray Mr. Birkenfeld, 45, as a whistle-blower. He is also seeking a large monetary reward under federal whistle-blower laws.
“Mr. Birkenfeld provided an unprecedented and unmeasurable benefit to the public,” says the 16-page petition, which is expected to be filed Thursday. His “commutation will encourage other whistle-blowers to come forward without fear of prosecution. His continued imprisonment will harm future compliance with tax laws, especially as they relate to illegal offshore accounts.”

The Justice Department has acknowledged Mr. Birkenfeld’s help in uncovering some of UBS’s secrets. The move helped the agency secure a $780 million fine against UBS, which in February 2009 admitted to criminal wrongdoing and turned over the names of 255 American clients. The deal also led the bank to agree to turn over the names of an additional 4,450 clients, something the Swiss government is working to do amid a tangle of Swiss laws that protect confidentiality.
But the Justice Department has also argued that even as Mr. Birkenfeld revealed some secrets, he withheld crucial information, including details of his top client, the property developer Igor Olenicoff. In the petition, Mr. Birkenfeld’s lawyers dispute that claim, as they have done previously.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/business/15tax.html

[DJ13]

1. And with this, the administration insures no future whistleblowers

will ever come forward that might hurt the wealthy.

Congratulations you dumbshits!

[SlipperySlope]

2. After he gets out of US prison, he should go to Swiss prison.

He violated their secrecy laws.

If we have the gall to claim our laws apply worldwide, then the Swiss should do the same.

[coyote]

32. I totally agree with you.

He broke Swiss secrecy laws and should go to jail there.

Germany is pulling the same shit. They are buying bank account information they know that has been illegally obtained in order to go after people in Germany.

What kind of double standard is this? It´s ok to break laws in some instances but others not.

[amborin]

6. exactly! a warning to whisleblowers: snitch and you go to jail

[phleshdef]

7. Um, whistle blower or not, this guy was a crook and thats why he is in prison.

Are you saying there should be no consequences at all just because he was willing to be a tattle tale in order to find a way to save his own ass?

[amborin]

12. um, he was silenced

if one wants to prosecute crooks, there's a long list of way more serious ones

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[amborin]

17. they silenced him, and only a handful of evaders caught;

[phleshdef]

21. Like I said, you don't even understand your own article.

There is NOTHING that suggests that he has been silenced by any stretch of the imagination.

If you would actually take the time to read your own article, you would find that the Justice Department is accusing him of witholding more information and that his own lawyers are arguing that he told them everything he knew.

Take the time to actually read your stories before you go all Glen Beck on it.

[ProSense]

3. Good!

Mr. Birkenfeld, an American who worked at the bank’s cross-border division in Geneva for about five years, entered a prison in Pennsylvania in August to begin a 40-month sentence for conspiring to defraud the government by helping wealthy Americans evade taxes through UBS’s offshore private bank.

Since then, he and his lawyers have conducted a campaign intended to portray Mr. Birkenfeld, 45, as a whistle-blower. He is also seeking a large monetary reward under federal whistle-blower laws.

“Mr. Birkenfeld provided an unprecedented and unmeasurable benefit to the public,” says the 16-page petition, which is expected to be filed Thursday. His “commutation will encourage other whistle-blowers to come forward without fear of prosecution. His continued imprisonment will harm future compliance with tax laws, especially as they relate to illegal offshore accounts.”

Sounds like the guy cop a plea and is trying to get the money.

[amborin]

5. Nope; this silences him and that was its intent; keep those accounts secret & serve as warning

[phleshdef]

8. Its pretty clear that this guy is a CROOK and had no noble reason to blow the whistle.

[amborin]

11. it's pretty clear he had to be silenced to protect the secret offshore accts

[phleshdef]

13. Go ahead and keep defending this criminal who is guilty of facilitating massive tax evasion.

[Raineyb]

29. You don't need a noble reason to blow the whistle. The government makes deals with

crooks all the time to get bigger fish. So why is this different? Could it be because going after the bigger fish would actually disrupt the money laundering of the rich? God forbid they should have to pay their fair share. Taxes are for the little people!

I guess that won't be a problem since I doubt anyone will stick their neck out to help the government if this is how they treat those who try to help them.

[ProSense]

20. No sympathy. n/t

[G_j]

4. (memo) jail anyone but Cheney nt

[phleshdef]

9. You didn't even read the article to find out why he is in prison in the first place, did you?

[Rex]

10. They punish the guy who had the most morals out of a den of vipers so no more

moral impulses k? Silence is golden!

[phleshdef]

15. Yea, he SURE had lots of morals after his ass was on the line for his crimes.

[Rex]

16. Had more then anyone else working there, but yeah throw him in prison

I'm not going to defend his sorry ass. All high level, white collar crime should be punishable by life sentences.

[phleshdef]

18. Heh, well I'm not advocating a life sentence for him, he DID give useful information.

But the OP is acting like this guy is some sort of hero who should get off completely scott free just because he was willing to pull others onto his sinking ship.

[amborin]

19. the bigger perps are seeking amnesty....

"Mr. Birkenfeld, a former private banker at the Swiss bank UBS, won the enmity of his peers by violating the omerta of Swiss banking: He divulged the tax evasion secrets of UBS, the world’s largest bank by assets, and its well-heeled American clients. As part of a deal with federal prosecutors, he admitted to, among other things, helping to smuggle diamonds in a tube of toothpaste.

Now, as thousands of wealthy Americans seek amnesty for keeping illicit, offshore bank accounts, Mr. Birkenfeld and his lawyers hope to use a new federal whistle-blower law to claim a multibillion-dollar reward from the American government. If they succeed — and legal experts say the odds are pretty good — it would be the largest reward of its kind. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/business/27whistle.html?_r=1&fta=y

[phleshdef]

22. Yes, so this disgusting piece of tax evading filth thinks he deserves billions for bringing others

...down with him when faced with punishment for his own crimes.

[amborin]

25. why the rage against whistleblowers?

"experts in whistle-blower cases — who, admittedly, have an interest in fostering such claims — say he has a persuasive case.

“I do think he has a serious claim,” said Erika A. Kelton, a partner at Phillips & Cohen, a law firm that specializes in large whistle-blower claims. “It was very credible, very useful information from inside UBS that he provided. The law is pretty clean on this.”

[phleshdef]

26. He helped cheat tax payers out of massive amount of money and you think he deserves even more.

Do you realize what an embarassing little corner you've painted yourself into here?

[amborin]

28. it's "embarrassing" and not "embarassing" sic

nope; he helped the gov't catch elite tax evaders who had secret accounts; for that, he does not deserve imprisonment

the bigger crooks face no charges

this silences the whistleblowers

[EFerrari]

33. You seem to be unclear on the concept "whistle blower".

He CAME FORWARD and his ass was not on the line for anything at the time.

There's a good rundown from January here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/7/why_is_the_whistleblower_who_exposed

The reason he's going to jail is that they're claiming he withheld information. Under Swiss law, there was information he couldn't release without a subpoena. The Feds wouldn't issue one. So, he goes to the Senate and they did issue one. Two days later, he gives the rest of the information that they needed because now he's not breaking Swiss law.

The fact of the matter is that he is being put in jail to discourage anyone else from blowing the whistle on tax cheats, especially the ones in public office.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/16/ubs

[EFerrari]

34. Exactly. Lesson learned. n/t

[Lance_Boyle]

23. Another Mark Whitacre, eh?

But... not. This guy was jailed for withholding information? That's all? And he got 40 months? I didn't think partial whistleblowing was a crime. :shrug:

[phleshdef]

27. He wasn't jailed for withholding. He was jailed for conspiring to help the people he later turned in

[EFerrari]

35. That's the government's claim. The National Whistleblower's Center

tells a different story. Birkenfeld made his way up the food chain at his bank and no one would touch it. That's when he went to our feds.

[librechik]

24. unbelievable. n/t

[troubledamerican]

30. Is Obama a Cheney sleeper-cell?

[Wilms]

31. Sad. n/t

[EFerrari]

36. 14,000 tax cheats and this guy, who did the right thing

from day one, goes to jail. Sheesh.

[EFerrari]

37. Omg. Found this report of Juan Gonzalez from 4/16

The chair of UBS was advising the Obama campaign, the vice chair was advising the McCain campaign. And the whole time, UBS had a special office in DC for PEP, "Politically Exposed People", to help them shelter their money off shores.

Nice going, Washington! :thumbsup:

Jailed Whistleblower: US Lawmakers Held Offshore UBS Accounts

Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez discusses his interview with UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld one day after Birkenfield’s Tax Day clemency request to President Obama. Birkenfeld is serving a forty-month sentence despite playing a key role in exposing the biggest tax evasion scheme in US history.

AMY GOODMAN: Juan, you have a very interesting piece in today’s New York Daily News.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes. Well, my column follows up, actually, on the conversation we had yesterday here on Democracy Now! on the issue of Bradley Birkenfeld, the UBS whistleblower. I interviewed Birkenfeld by telephone from his federal cell in Pennsylvania yesterday, and he provided some new revelations about the involvement of UBS in the largest tax fraud in American history.

Birkenfeld told me that the UBS bank that he worked for, the Swiss bank, actually had an office in Washington, DC, which the other bankers called the PEP office, which was for “politically exposed people.” And he claims it was an office that handled the offshore bank accounts of American politicians. He said he did not have the names of those politicians, because he didn’t actually work in that office and it was closely held, but it was well known that there were major American politicians, as well, that were hiding their money in Swiss bank accounts.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/16/ubs