Silence8
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http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/15/ubs
AMY GOODMAN: A former banker for the Swiss giant UBS [who] blew the whistle on the biggest tax evasion scheme in US history is asking President Obama today for clemency. The clemency request is being filed to coincide with Tax Day, the day US income tax returns are due for all of us.
In January, Bradley Birkenfeld began serving a forty-month sentence despite playing a key role in uncovering the bank scandal. Birkenfeld first came forward to US authorities in 2007 and began providing inside information on how UBS was helping thousands of Americans evade taxes by hiding billions of dollars in secret Swiss accounts.
Due in part to information provided by Birkenfeld, UBS pleaded guilty last year 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. Meanwhile, thousands of other Americans with unreported offshore accounts have been allowed to belatedly disclose them and pay civil penalties.
The jailing of Birkenfeld has angered many advocates of whistleblowers. His attorney Stephen Kohn joins us now from Washington, DC. Kohn is executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Stephen Kohn. Start by explaining how exactly it is that this whistleblower, Bradley Birkenfeld, ended up in jail.
STEPHEN KOHN: Well, good morning.
And Mr. Birkenfeld did the right thing. He had information about the largest tax fraud ever turned in. And he walked it over to the Justice Department. He gave them the information. They said, “Thank you very much.” But because he was one of the bankers involved, they indicted him. So they put him in jail for voluntarily, without immunity, turning in the largest tax fraud ever, while thousands of people who profited by millions of dollars have escaped. They only went after—they went after the whistleblower.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Stephen Kohn, the government claims that he didn’t provide all of the information on his biggest client, a Russian from California who was subsequently indicted on tax fraud, as well, and that he withheld vital information from the government.
STEPHEN KOHN: Yeah, and now our investigation has shown that was completely false. This billionaire, Mr. Olenicoff, had $200 million hidden offshore, for which he had for years and years. He was eventually indicted and given probation—no jail time—and a minor fine. Then they turned around to Birkenfeld and said, “Ha! He was your client. You should have turned him in. We’ll put you in jail for forty months.” Well, the record shows that Birkenfeld disclosed all of the information about Olenicoff voluntarily to the US Senate investigators before Olenicoff was indicted and before he was sentenced. So the government’s claim that he was withholding that information just was not true.
What’s incredible in this case is that Mr. Birkenfeld worked for a secret bank in Switzerland. It was UBS, the largest bank in the world, but this account that he worked in were the secret accounts where people could put money without disclosing it to the IRS—you know, the classic secret Swiss bank account. It was a fraud, $20 billion fraud. He turned in all the information. The United States government has collected billions of dollars now from the taxpayers who were secretly withholding their income. They collected $780 million from UBS. He was the largest tax whistleblower in US history. Every American has saved money from what he turned in. But the government turned against him.
And by putting him in jail, it’s creating a chilling effect. Other bankers who have this type of information are afraid. Why would anyone blow the whistle on secret bank accounts if they’re the ones who would end up in prison? That’s why our campaign, that we’ve started today, for executive clemency. He is serving in prison more time than any other banker from UBS, more prison time than the ones who didn’t blow the whistle, the ones who managed the program. He is serving more time in jail than any of the 19,000 Americans who profited personally from these accounts. The government’s sending a terrible, terrible message: don’t blow the whistle; if you do, we’ll take the information you gave us, use it against you, and put you in jail. We have to turn that around. And the only way to do it right now is through clemency.
When the Senate investigated Birkenfeld’s allegations and conducted a full review of illegal offshore accounts, they estimated that there was $3 to $5 trillion of United States assets in offshore accounts. The UBS scheme that Birkenfeld turned in was $20 billion. The Senate estimated that there was a minimum of $100 billion lost per year by these illegal accounts. How will the American people ever discover who has these accounts? How will these accounts ever be closed down? How will the bankers ever be brought to justice? Through whistleblowers. But the first whistleblower in history to step forward and release this information is in jail. And all the other people who held the accounts or conducted the transactions are not in jail. This is not right. So the government—and it’s up to the President now—has to issue a clemency. He has to issue a strong statement encouraging the other international bankers to step forward.
The problem with these secret accounts is a lot worse than just US taxpayers losing money. These accounts are used by corrupt politicians to put their bribe money. They’re used by officials in developing countries to put illegally stolen development funds, money stolen from food programs, education programs. Who puts money into these illegal accounts? How are they misused? The scandal exposed by Mr. Birkenfeld—and keep in mind, he was the first major banker ever in world history to take information from these top-secret foreign accounts and give them to the government for prosecution. How was he treated? That’s the message.
This is a major news story in Switzerland. This is a major news story throughout the entire banking community. This is being watched. I was interviewed by Swiss TV yesterday. The people who manage the secret bank accounts are watching Birkenfeld with a magnifying glass. They want to know how has the United States treated him. And it’s simple.
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