Birkenfeld Gets 40 Months in jail

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The Washington post has reported that Bradley C. Birkenfeld, a former banker for Swiss banking giant UBS and who helped U.S. officials uncover billions of dollars in taxpayer money in secret bank accounts was sentenced on the 21st August 2009.

He pleaded guilty last year to the criminal charge of assisting UBS (and some of its US clients) evade the USA’s tax collectors, the Internal Revenue Service. As he is still helping the authorities with their enquiries, he will start his term on 8th January 2010.

Mr Birkenfeld had asked to be sentenced only to probation, federal prosecutors had asked that he be given 30 months but in the end a federal judge gave him 40 months. The sentence does leave me wondering about whether the Judge accepted his motivation for blowing the whistle as being entirely pure?