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I blew up the Swiss banking system and all I got was this lousy orange jumpsuit

January 05, 2010

Brad Birkenfeld is learning that nobody likes a snitch. Even though he is largely responsible for cracking Swiss banking secrecy, the judge says that doesn't make up for his own tax offenses:

Birkenfeld had pleaded guilty to a single fraud conspiracy count in June 2008, when he acknowledged helping his largest U.S. client hide assets from the Internal Revenue Service.

In a claim disputed by Birkenfeld’s lawyers in a Dec. 7 letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Justice Department officials said the jail time was justified because he was not initially forthcoming about the tax fraud committed by his billionaire U.S. client Igor Olenicoff.

All is not lost for Mr. Birkenfeld, however:

Oh, well, at least he still has some possibility for a whistleblower claim in the mega-millions.

If he can get 30 percent of all of the money from the offshore tax cheats the IRS is going to get, 40 months in Club Fed may pass by quickly. And if you vote for him as 2009 Taxpayer of the Year, he'll have that going for him.

Tags: Brad Birkenfeld.Federal Tax Crimes blog.tax crime.taxpayer-of-the-year 2009.

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