Get Out of Jail, Collect $104 Million

A former Swiss banking employee just won a big whistleblower award from the IRS.

Brandon Ballenger • September 11, 2012

He spent 2 1/2 years in jail for helping wealthy clients dodge taxes. Now he’ll get $104 million for spilling his secrets.

NBC News reports Bradley Birkenfeld will receive a whistleblower award from the IRS for revealing the workings of the Swiss bank UBS that thousands of wealthy Americans were using for illegal offshore accounts:

Birkenfeld attorney Stephen Kohn said the information the former Swiss banker turned over to the IRS led directly to the $780 million fine paid to the US by his former employer, UBS, as well as leading over 35,000 taxpayers to participate in amnesty programs to voluntarily repatriate their illegal offshore accounts. Kohn said that resulted in the collection of over $5 billion dollars in back taxes, fines and penalties that otherwise would have remained outside the reach of the government.

If you’re curious, just yesterday we posted Why Do the Rich Invest Offshore?

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