Lest the brouhaha over Timothy Geithner's AIG coverup leave folks with the wrong impression this week, another story should make it perfectly clear that Geithner was simply acting according to the (admittedly corrupt) norms that now prevail amongst America's ruling elites.
In 2007, UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld blew the whistle on a massive international tax cheating scheme. Although thousands of wealthy tax cheats ended up paying fines, and UBS itself plead guilty and paid a $780 million fine, that was only a fraction of the total accounts UBS held, most of which were simply ignored. More importantly--and outrageously--the only person to go to jail in all this is Birkenfeld himself: a clear message that further whistleblowing is not wanted, and that wealthy tax cheats can once again rest easy.
The interview began with a setup from Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzales, columnist for the New York Daily News who had previously written a column about the case:
JUAN GONZALEZ: A former banker for the Swiss giant UBS who blew the whistle on the biggest tax evasion scheme in US history is preparing to head to prison tomorrow to begin serving a forty-month federal sentence.
Bradley Birkenfeld first came forward to US authorities in 2007 and began providing inside information on how UBS was helping thousands of Americans hide assets in secret Swiss accounts. UBS pleaded guilty last February 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. That's only a portion of the 19,000 it claims the secret accounts of Americans it held. Meanwhile, thousands of other Americans with unreported offshore accounts have been allowed to belatedly disclose them and pay civil penalties.
Amy Goodman then elaborated on how Birkenfeld is about to go to jail, setting the stage to hear from his current attorney:
AMY GOODMAN: Government prosecutors have admitted the massive fraud scheme would probably not have been discovered without Birkenfeld blowing the whistle on UBS. So why is he the only one going to jail? Prosecutors claim Birkenfeld withheld information on how he had helped his biggest US client, California billionaire Igor Olenicoff, hide hundreds of millions of dollars in assets. Birkenfeld pleaded guilty in 2008 and received a forty-month sentence. His lawyers filed a formal complaint this week with the US Attorney General's Office of Professional Responsibility, claiming the "main allegations used to secure [Birkenfeld's] indictment and imprisonment were not based on accurate or truthful information."
Stephen Kohn is now Bradley Birkenfeld's attorney. He's the executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center. He joins us now from Washington, DC.
Stephen Kohn, welcome to Democracy Now! Just explain why Bradley Birkenfeld is going to prison tomorrow.
As Birkenfeld's attorney then explains, Birkenfeld was bound by banking laws--particularly Swiss banking laws--and needed to be legally compelled to turn over information in order to do so without breaking the law himself. Rather than doing this, American officials left him twisting in the wind, then charged him for not telling them what Swiss law forbade him from sharing:
STEPHEN KOHN: Well, the prosecutor before the court said Mr. Birkenfeld was going to jail because he failed to disclose in 2007 his relationship with this billionaire, Mr. Olenicoff. Our investigation has shown that statement was not true.
When Birkenfeld met with the Justice Department, he begged them for a subpoena, or other compulsory service, to reveal names of clients, which was illegal under Swiss law. He was living in Switzerland at the time. They wouldn't. So Mr. Birkenfeld went and asked the Senate Committee on Investigations to subpoena him. They did. Two days after getting that subpoena, in a sworn deposition, he revealed all his information about Mr. Olenicoff onto the record. That was all done in 2007, before Olenicoff was indicted and before he entered any plea. If there was any conspiracy to hold--to hide information about Olenicoff, it was from the Justice Department, that wouldn't give Mr. Birkenfeld the process he needed to comply with Swiss law. And it was very simple for them to do that. Once he got it, he turned over all the names. He did it before the indictment. So then the prosecutor, to sentence Mr. Birkenfeld to forty months in jail, appears in court and accuses Birkenfeld of withholding Olenicoff, which was not true.
What's triple outrageous--I'm going beyond double--is that then they recommend thirty months imprisonment for Birkenfeld. He gets forty months, more than probably every single tax cheat, the 19,000 of them that he turned in, will get collectively. Olenicoff, the billionaire, who for twenty years was hiding millions and millions of dollars willfully, got probation. A guy named Liechti, who was Birkenfeld's third line supervisor in the Swiss bank, who was in charge of all the illegal accounts, who was detained and arrested by the Justice Department, was released and let to go back to Switzerland with no prison time or even a conviction, whereas Birkenfeld, who blew the whistle on the whole scheme voluntarily, is going to serve more time in prison than the worst of the wrongdoers that were involved in holding back $20 billion in illegal accounts.
Can it possibly be any clearer than this?
No wonder Obama loves Ronald Reagan so much. Like Reagan, he aspires to be Robin Hood in reverse. And heaven help anyone who gets in the way.
"Looking forward, not back," anyone? For the likes of Bush/Cheney, without a doubt.
For Bradley Birkenfeld, not so much.
When it's important to send a message, it's important to send a messaage: Whistleblowers, this will happen to you!
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