Former UBS Employee May Profit from Taking Down 4,450 Tax Cheaters
The IRS originally found out about these accounts from a former UBS employee named Bradley Birkenfeld. Birkenfeld had been a member of a team of UBS private bankers who assisted wealthy Americans with the establishment of foreign bank accounts that were disguised through offshore corporations.
After resigning from UBS, Birkenfeld filed a claim for a whistleblower reward and then contacted the IRS, the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a Senate Investigative panel. The whistleblower law provides generous rewards to persons who help the IRS catch tax cheaters.
Birkenfeld has been convicted for aiding and abetting tax evasion and will serve 40 months in prison. If he survives his prison stay, he may be a very wealthy man. An article titled, For American Who Blew Whistle, Only Reward May Be a Jail Sentence, by David Hilzenrath in the Washington Post, cites a man who helped write the whistleblower laws. This man believes that Birkenfield is entitled to a reward totaling tens of millions of dollars.
