Comments on: UBS Whistleblower Wants Shorter Sentence

By: UBS Informant Must Report to Prison On Time | taxgirl

UBS Informant Must Report to Prison On Time | taxgirl — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:20:48 +0000

[...] 6, 2010 · 0 comments A federal judge has declined Bradley Birkenfeld’s request for leniency. Birkenfeld must report to prison on Friday, January 8, as scheduled, to serve his 40-month prison [...]

By: S. Vitrano

S. Vitrano — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:02:49 +0000

My heart bleeds for the bastard!!
Two years ago he did approach the UBS and started singing like a canary!! Or was it squealing like a young pig??
There was a good reason for him to do this in the hope of getting a bit of leniency from the IRS. He was caught “in flagrante” by the IRS in the course of their investigation of the Olenicoff off shore accounts!!
Now he not only complains about his sentence, whyich is MUCH TOO SHORT, but has the gall to capitalise on this!! If he gets anything at all from the IRS as a bounty, this must be shared out amongst the damaged and offended clients that he had abused over the years!!

By: Chad

Chad — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:09:16 +0000

There are laws to be abided by and criminals to be punished. I’m not so sure that out right exemptions should be given to whistle blowers for the whole of each case.
Given this guy’s involvement in tax evasion, he still needs to pay up for his misdeed. However, he could negotiate out of that for the millions that he would receive. Given that he was not involved, give him the millions and the exemption and don’t let the door hit him on the way out. Even the scum of society deserve a wage for their efforts.
My $0.02

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:49:09 +0000

He was arrested while on his way into the U.S. to continue his meetings with the U.S. Senate and the SEC (meetings that were following up on the investigations that Birkenfeld had started the prior year). The Senate and SEC were getting far ahead with of Kevin Downing (the DoJ prosecutor) and DoJ with their investigations because they were working with Birkenfeld. In contrast, Downing and the DoJ were hostile toward Birkenfeld before they even knew his name or the bank he was going to report on. Kevin Downing actually pressured Birkenfeld’s lawyer at the time (since fired) to only mention a high school reunion in open court and to not mention anything about him being the government’s star witness (for the SEC, IRS, Senate and DoJ).
The recorded testimony before the U.S. Senate proves beyond any doubt that he provided the information to the government BEFORE the Government ever charged Olenicoff.
As long as the information provided was “significant” and not previously known by the government (yes and yes in this case) he collects the reward as long as he did not “plan and initiate” the activity that he reported on. The Deferred Prosecution Agreement between UBS and the U.S. establishes that this illegal UBS activity started at least as far back as 2000…the year before Birkenfeld even started working for the bank. So he could possibly have planned and initiated it. Pay the man.