Ex-Banker becomes No. 1 whistleblower

Bradley Birkenfeld has gone from prison inmate to multi-millionaire in fairly short order. The former banker served 31 months behind bars for helping a former client at UBS AG hide his wealth from the Internal Revenue Service. But he also blew the whistle on a wide tax-evasion scheme by the giant Swiss banking firm and was rewarded for helping the government under federal False Claims Act provisions. The reward to Birkenfeld, was the largest ever paid to an individual -- $104 million. That according to news reports citing the National Whistleblowers Center. The investigation helped by Birkenfeld’s information resulted in fines of $780 million against UBS. It also produced an agreement requiring UBS to give the government the names of 4,700 Americans who held secret overseas accounts, which in turn resulted in the IRS recovering about $5 billion in back taxes and penalties. For more information on help with whistleblower lawsuits go to www.attorneysforwhistleblowers.com