Bradley Birkenfeld at Schuylkill County Federal Correctional Institution in Minersville, Penn., in April 2009
12 September 2012. The Internal Revenue Service awarded former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld $104 million for providing the agency with insider information in UBS’s illegal encouragement of secret offshore accounts by U.S. taxpayers, The Wall Street Journal reported. Birkenfeld started co-operating with US Authorities while he was still employed by UBS. UBS paid $780 million to resolve the pending criminal case and agreed to hand over information about 4,000 secret account holders who are American tax payers, lifting the veil of Swiss banking secrecy. Birkenfeld was not present when IRS announced the award. He was serving a sentence for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by withholding information concerning his relationship with a wealthy California developer. He pleaded to one count of conspiracy. In 2009 He filed a claim under a 2006 law that awards whistleblowers up to 30% of revenues recovered using information they provided.
