UBS Banker Gets 40 Months

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Bradley Birkenfeld, a U.S. citizen residing in Florida, was sentenced today to 40 months in a federal penitentiary for his role as an agent of Swiss banking giant UBS AG.


UBS signed a “Qualified Intermediary” agreement with the IRS in which UBS was required to disclose the identity of any UBS clients who were U.S. citizens investing in U.S. securities.

Instead, UBS counseled U.S. citizens on a variety of methods to avoid disclosure to the IRS of their assets on deposit at UBS in Switzerland.


Birkenfeld was sentenced by District Court Judge William Zloch in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for conspiring to defraud the United States by helping a billionaire U.S. real estate developer create sham corporations and entities to hide $200 million in assets from the IRS.

Birkenfeld was credited with providing information in a sweeping U.S. investigation of UBS over its private banking business which involved American citizens who used their Swiss bank accounts to hide money overseas to evade U.S. taxes.


Birkenfeld’s sentencing has been delayed four times since it was originally set for August last year and was finally handed down two days after U.S. and Swiss authorities signed a pact in which Switzerland agreed to reveal the names of about 4,450 wealthy American clients of UBS to the IRS.

"To those taxpayers who have illegally hidden their income in foreign bank accounts and to those who have illegally helped clients hide income and assets, today's sentencing serves as notice: come in and completely come clean," said John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Tax Division.


Kevin Downing, a senior attorney with the Department of Justice tax division, said an additional sentence reduction may be requested by the government based on Birkenfeld's continuing cooperation in the UBS tax fraud probe over the next 90 days. Taking this into account, Judge Zloch deferred the date for Birkenfeld to report to prison until January 8, 2010. Sphere: Related Content