JasonSJackson
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Still Serving His Sentence, But Filthy Rich - Law Blog - WSJ
Would you cool your heels in prison for 40 months in exchange for $104 million?
From the WSJ:
The Internal Revenue Service awarded tax whistleblower and former UBSbanker Bradley Birkenfeld $104 million for providing the agency with insider information in UBS's UBSN.VX +0.68%illegal encouragement of secret offshore accounts by U.S. taxpayers.
Mr. Birkenfelds lawyers said this is believed to be the largest reward ever given to an individual whistleblower in the U.S.
Mr. Birkenfeld told U.S. investigators about illicit practices allegedly encouraged by the bank. In 2009, UBS paid $780 million to resolve a pending criminal case and agreed to turn over information about more than 4,000 secret account holders who were U.S. taxpayers, lifting the veil on Swiss bank secrecy.
Mr. Birkenfeld, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy for his role in the scheme, is now in a halfway house in New Hampshire. He was released from Schuylkill County Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania in August, after serving 30 months.
Prosecutors have said that they would have had no case against UBS without Mr. Birkenfeld. Still, they sought prison time, saying, among other things, that he didnt provide information on his biggest client, California billionaire Igor Olenicoff, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to filing a false tax return.
The $104 million award, by the way, is taxable.
Would you cool your heels in prison for 40 months in exchange for $104 million?
From the WSJ:
The Internal Revenue Service awarded tax whistleblower and former UBSbanker Bradley Birkenfeld $104 million for providing the agency with insider information in UBS's UBSN.VX +0.68%illegal encouragement of secret offshore accounts by U.S. taxpayers.
Mr. Birkenfelds lawyers said this is believed to be the largest reward ever given to an individual whistleblower in the U.S.
Mr. Birkenfeld told U.S. investigators about illicit practices allegedly encouraged by the bank. In 2009, UBS paid $780 million to resolve a pending criminal case and agreed to turn over information about more than 4,000 secret account holders who were U.S. taxpayers, lifting the veil on Swiss bank secrecy.
Mr. Birkenfeld, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy for his role in the scheme, is now in a halfway house in New Hampshire. He was released from Schuylkill County Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania in August, after serving 30 months.
Prosecutors have said that they would have had no case against UBS without Mr. Birkenfeld. Still, they sought prison time, saying, among other things, that he didnt provide information on his biggest client, California billionaire Igor Olenicoff, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to filing a false tax return.
The $104 million award, by the way, is taxable.
???
that's a lot of money
