By John Pacenti

UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld's date with a prison cell remains set for Friday.

A day after telling his story on CBS' "60 Minutes," Birkenfeld lost two important motions Monday to postpone his prison reporting date and cut his sentence.

U.S. District Judge William Zloch in Fort Lauderdale denied both motions, which were based on Birkenfeld's pivotal cooperation with the government in its investigation of illegal UBS offshore accounts held by wealthy Americans.

A New York Times masthead editorial argues that the while the Obama administration has taken a stance against torture, policy makers are continuing to rationalize it, after the Supreme Court declined to review a case brought by four Guantánamo detainees who were never charged with a crime. The Supreme Court’s decision not to review has deprived victims of a remedy and Americans of government accountability, while further damaging the country’s standing in the world.

The Justice Department is considering asking a federal judge to decrease the sentence of UBS whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld (NYT). Birkenfeld was sentenced to three years and four months in prison after blowing the whistle on illegal offshore banking practices by UBS. Because of his disclosures, the IRS was able to recoup $780 million dollars and thousands of names of tax cheats.

A dairy in China recalled milk products after they were found to contain too much melamine. The recall comes after a 2008 Chinese massive food scare, in which melamine in milk was blamed for killing six children and sickening 300,000. While the new recall is much smaller in scope, it does raise questions about whether or not the Chinese dairy industry has reformed itself.

A Washington Post editorial by science and politics writer Chris Mooney argues that while scientific scandals such as “Climategate” have not proven that science is fraudulent, they have indeed proven that scientists are not well armed with communication skills. Because the media is increasingly cutting back on science-focused journalism, the ability of scientists to communicate their own data efficiently is progressively more vital.

By Wayne Tompkins

The key whistleblower in the U.S. government's case against Swiss banking giant UBS's offshore banking practices is asking that his 40-month prison sentence be postponed and reconsidered.

The motion Bradley Birkenfeld filed over the weekend in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., would, if granted, push back the Jan. 8 date on which he is to report to prison and reduce his sentence -- which includes a $30,000 fine.

This Swiss news segment (in French) about UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld features and interview with GAP Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack.

Click here to view the segment

By Martha Brannigan

Whistle-blower advocates are asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review the treatment of tipster Bradley C. Birkenfeld, the former UBS banker who was sentenced to 40 months in prison despite his pivotal help in the groundbreaking case against the Swiss banking giant.

This post was written by GAP Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack for her Daily Kos Blog.

Today's Washington Post has an article on exactly what I got slammed for writing yesterday; namely, that the UBS-Swiss settlement was no "bargain." For those of you who say I need to get my facts straight, maybe you'll believe the MSM Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Annually, the treasury loses over $100 billion in revenue due to illegal offshore tax havens.  UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, admitted that for years it helped thousands of American clients hide billions of dollars from the IRS.

Yesterday, the IRS revealed the criteria for the lame settlement of a civil lawsuit in which the U.S. sought the names of 52,000 UBS tax cheats.

I explained why this was lame, http://www.dailykos.com/.... Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich) agrees:

The tortured wording and the many limitations in this annex [to the settlement agreement] shows the Swiss government trying to preserve as much bank secrecy as it can for the future, while pushing to conceal the names of tens of thousands of suspected U.S. tax cheats. . . It is disappointing that the government went along.

Incompetence #1: The U.S. sought the names of 52,000 tax dodgers and settled for 4,500--fewer than 10%

Incompentence #2: They knew back in June 2007, courtesy of whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld, that there were 19,000 undisclosed accounts.

Incompetence #3: If your Swiss bank account was under $1 million, you're off the hook.

Incompetence # 4: If you voluntarily disclosed your Swiss bank account under the IRS "Amnesty" (the IRS's words, not mine) Program, then you will not face criminal liability.

Incompetence #5: The government underfined the bank.

Incompetence # 6: The government indicts people like Raoul Weil in show maneuvers, knowing he won't be extradited.

Incompetence #7: The U.S. had UBS kingpin Martin LIEchti in its claws back in April 2008 and released him back to Switzerland, scot-free.

Incompetence #8: The whistleblower, Brad Birkenfeld, who in the words of prosecutor Kevin Downing, we would have had no other means to have learned what was going on but for an insider in that scheme providing detailed information, which Mr. Birkenfeld did, is the ONLY one going to jail in this whole scandal.

This post was written by GAP Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack for her Daily Kos Blog.

It's gone from bad to worse. I've written previously about how Brad Birkenfeld, the whistleblower who shattered 75 years of Swiss bank secrecy, is the only one going to jail in this multi-billion dollar scandal. But now my dyspepsia has turned to projectile vomiting. I have asked in previous diaries why, when the U.S. had UBS kingpin Martin Liechti in its claws, it set him scot-free back to Switzerland.

Well, we now know why. Consistent with a disturbing trend, the United States granted the worse of the worst immunity, and is imprisoning not just a bit player, but the whistleblower... and an American.

If you don't know about financial whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld already, then I recommend you watch this:

In Le Temps today, Switzerland's leading daily newspaper, http://www.bilan.ch/...
it states that Martin Liechti received immunity. I know it is in French, but the relevant part translates as follows:

Despite incriminating documents pointing to LEICHTI, he was granted immunity.

But the U.S. would have had nothing on Liechti (as evidenced by the fact that it searched his place some five years ago and couldn't make a case), but for Brad Birkenfeld, who blew the whistle on Liechti and other top UBS executives.

So, it is especially shocking to find that the U.S. granted immunity to Liechti, the mastermind, when it wouldn't grant immunity to Birkenfeld, and actually prosecuted him!

There is no justice. What can you do? Watch the YouTube video, rate it, and post a comment. Spread this wretched story.

by John Pacenti

Without expatriate whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld, offshore tax havens for Americans might still be a great way to hide money from the IRS. For his help in uncovering an international network of hidden money, the former UBS banker received a 40-month federal prison sentence.

Three Washington, D.C.-based government watchdog groups say the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge William Zloch in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will discourage other bankers from coming forward to the Internal Revenue Service under a three-year-old whistle-blower law.

This post was written by GAP Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack for her Daily Kos Blog.

This morning, whistleblower advocacy groups called for Attorney General Holder to personally consider whether DOJ should be locking up whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld.  Birkenfeld took immense professional and personal risks to voluntarily disclose UBS's multi-billion dollar tax fraud conspiracy to law enforcement officials, handing DOJ its case against UBS on a silver platter.

What was Birkenfeld's reward for blowing the whistle? He is facing jail time while his colleagues who did nothing to cooperate have gotten off practically scot-free.  Holder should review this case and protect Birkenfeld, lest Holder plans to give up on any possible future financial whistleblowers who will learn that a "whistleblower reward" is a prison jumpsuit.

Today's letter from the National Whistleblower Center (NWC), the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) points out the tragic consequences of DOJ punishing rather than protecting financial whistleblowers and should spur Holder to personally review Birkenfeld's case.

With $5-7 trillion U.S. dollars hidden in offshore accounts causing $100 billion in treasury revenue losses, the harm in sending Birkenfeld to jail is astronomical.  Holder ought to pay attention when he reads the consequences the letter points out:

Denying Mr. Birkenfeld whistleblower status, and sending him off to a long prison term, radically undermines the ability of the U.S. government to detect, prosecute and prevent illegal off-shore banking practices.  Without exaggeration, on the day Mr. Birkenfeld enters a federal penitentiary, every criminal using offshore secret banks to hide their ill-gotten gain will celebrate.  The Department of Justice will, unintentionally, be party to a well-publicized worldwide event that will send a chill down the spine of any international banker who, like Mr. Birkenfeld, feels guilty about the practices they participate in and wants to help stop these insidious practices that undermine the rule of law.

Due to the destructive impact of Mr. Birkenfeld’s sentencing, honest U.S. taxpayers will continue to bear the burden of the $100 billion lost to the Treasury annually because of secret banking. Victims of crimes funded by laundered funds, often funneled through secret banks, will shudder. These secret accounts are used to hide "blood money": money stolen from development projects designed for the most impoverished; bribe money obtained by crooked politicians, undermining the rule of law; profits from illegal arms deals to terrorist organizations.

At Birkenfeld's sentencing in August, DOJ itself fully acknowledged Birkenfeld's voluntary disclosures and made clear that DOJ would not have opened the UBS case without his information:

The United States opened an investigation based on information provided by Birkenfeld...This substantial assistance has been timely, significant, useful, truthful, complete and reliable.

Birkenfeld's information didn't just serve to expose thousands of illegal accounts; the case has yielded fines and penalties of $780 million. Yet, after taking and using all of the information he provided, DOJ still prosecuted Birkenfeld.  And, while Birkenfeld's reward is a jail sentence, Birkenfeld's criminal colleagues - like Martin Leichti, Birkenfeld's ex-boss, who was allowed to return to Switzerland - are enjoying the benefits of hiding their criminal behavior: freedom and wealth.

So, as the letter asks, so do I:

Will the Department of Justice imprison the international banker who had the courage to voluntarily step forward and blow the whistle on one of the world’s most powerful corporations? Or will the Department of Justice use the Bradley Birkenfeld case as an historic opportunity to promote whistleblowing in the fight against corrupt international banks?

by Brett Kendall

Three advocacy groups asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Thursday to personally review the case of the prison-bound banker who helped U.S. tax authorities build their groundbreaking case against UBS AG (UBS).

The groups said in a letter to Holder that former UBS private banker Bradley Birkenfeld, who was sentenced in August to 40 months in prison for helping the Swiss bank's clients evade taxes, should have been given protections as a whistleblower and granted immunity from prosecution.