Jailed Banker Who Helped Crack UBS Gets $104 Million Payout

[formercia]

Source: Yahoo Finance

By Eamon Javers | CNBC – 1 hour 23 minutes ago

Attorneys for jailed former Swiss banker Bradley Birkenfeld announced Tuesday that the IRS will pay him $104 million as a whistleblower reward for information he turned over to the US government.
The information Birkenfeld revealed detailed the inner workings of the secretive private wealth management division of the Swiss bank UBS (UBS), where the American-born Birkenfeld helped his US clients evade taxes by hiding wealth overseas.

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Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jailed-banker-helped-crack-swiss-142921849.html

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[1StrongBlackMan]

1. I think ...

If I were Mr. Birkenfeld ... I would spend the rest of my life on the single purpose of helping my former associates experience the prison challenge that they so generously allowed me to experience.

And I'd have $104 million dollars to help me.

[Vox Moi]

3. So, the whistleblower gets his reward but so did the tax cheats.

The tax cheats got both amnesty and anonymity.
The IRS amnesty program might have been a practical necessity (maybe) but why keep the list secret?
If We The People are going to forgive people who commit a crime don't we at least get to know who we are forgiving?
Amnesty, offered to anonymous persons, isn't justice. It's a cover.

[Nihil]

6. Too many "deciders" on the list to publicise it ...

It would not only put the lie to why there is so much emphasis on "Looking forward not back"
but would directly impact far too many of the people that administrations consider important.

> Amnesty, offered to anonymous persons, isn't justice. It's a cover.

Ding! *That* is the right answer!

[valerief]

4. I hope he has no plans to fly any small planes soon. nt

[Lucky Luciano]

5. Yep. He will need to invest a lot in a private security detail.

...hire food tasters, bodyguards, change his name, etc.