Former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld played a crucial role in helping the U.S. government pry loose the names of U.S. account holders with money in the Swiss bank, but hes nevertheless getting sentenced to 40 months in prison.
The IRS's whistleblower program has been drawing more tips ever since a change in the law in 2006 that will allow the whistleblowers to collect up to 30 percent of the proceeds recovered, double the 15 percent before the law change (see I
However, that doesnt mean the whistleblowers are collecting the money. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found in a recent report that it could take an average of seven-and-a-half years to pay the claims under the old law, and even now there are problems with timely processing of claims that lead to long delays (see
In Birkenfelds case, the Justice Department seems to have gone after him because it believes he held back information from them and advised one of UBSs clients to move his money to another tax haven, Liechtenstein. However, Birkenfeld apparently came forward voluntarily and provided crucial information to the IRS and the Justice Department about UBSs practices. He still could potentially collect a seven-figure payout from the IRS when he gets out of jail, or maybe even while hes still inside, according to a fascinating
The TIGTA report on the current IRS whistleblower program faults the 2006 legislation for not containing specific provisions to protect employees against retaliation by their employers. Seems the legislation also should have contained a provision to protect whistleblowers from retaliation by prosecutors.
