While The Whistleblower Sits in Prison, More People May Walk Away
On January 28, 2010, the Washington Post announced that the Swiss government has suspended the disclosure of information about tax cheats to the United States under a February 2009 “deferred prosecution” agreement and may seek to renegotiate the deal. Under the agreement the Swiss government was supposed to provide the U.S. with 4,450 accounts of the 52,000 secret accounts not declared to the IRS.
Basically, this means that 14,700 people walked away without prosecution under the IRS amnesty program, the head of entire illegal UBS program Martin Liechti was allowed to return to Switzerland without prosecution, the 4,450 tax cheats are likely to escape prosecution, and Bradley Birkenfeld (the person responsible for blowing the whistle and ending the illegal UBS program) is still the only banker sitting in prison.
When will the U.S. government wake up? Bradley Birkenfeld’s prison sentence is not only unjust in terms of how they treated every other person associated with the UBS scandal, it is permanently harming national and international efforts to fight corruption. Once again, what whistleblower is going to want to come forward after seeing how Mr. Birkenfeld was treated?
Please TAKE ACTION to stop this injustice now!
I have been following this story for some time now and it is a shame that the laws designed to protect whistleblowers appear to be inadequate. Actions taken by Mr. Birkenfeld under the whistleblower policy of his company, UBS, were likewise ineffective in illuminating the facts. The financial troubles that Wikileaks has had lately is yet another area of concern for potential whistleblowers who fear any type of retribution. Unless whistleblowers take proactive measures to protect their own privacy when blowing the whistle, the chilling effect that these events have will probably continue.