Birkenfeld lawyers to ask for clemency
The banker who exposed widespread tax evasion at Swiss bank UBS will ask for clemency from President Barack Obama, his attorneys said on Wednesday.
Lawyers acting on behalf of Bradley Birkenfeld said they would file a petition on Thursday. Its timing coincides with the day most tax returns in the United States are due.
The petition seeks a reduction in Birkenfeld’s three-year-plus sentence for a fraud conspiracy conviction to time served since he reported to prison on January 8.
“On tax day, it is absolutely critical that President Obama send a message that whistle-blowers are welcome in the United States,” said Stephen Kohn, executive director of the Washington-based National Whistleblowers Center and one of Birkenfeld’s attorneys.
US justice authorities acknowledge that Birkenfeld was vital in the UBS investigation but say he was prosecuted because he failed to disclose his own wrongdoing quickly enough.
The investigation resulted in a $780 million (SFr822 million) fine against UBS and an unprecedented agreement requiring UBS to turn over names of some 4,450 suspected American tax dodgers to the Internal Revenue Service.
UBS shareholders on Wednesday voted not to clear the bank’s 2007 executives of misdeeds relating to the scandal.
Birkenfeld is scheduled for release on November 29, 2012.
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