Bradley Birkenfeld

Bradley Birkenfeld

Bradley Birkenfeld, a former banker and wealth manager at UBS, was the first international banker to blow the whistle on illegal offshore accounts held in Switzerland by U.S. citizens. For his disclosures of IRS tax fraud by UBS, Birkenfeld was awarded $104 million, the largest reward ever given to an individual in the 25-year history of federal whistleblower reward laws. During his case, NWC provided communications assistance, drumming up public support from thousands of engaged members of its action alert network.

His disclosures have resulted in unprecedented recoveries for the U.S. taxpayers. The recoveries include $780 million dollars in civil fines and penalties paid by UBS bank, and over $25 billion dollars in collections from U.S. taxpayers who had illegally held “undeclared” offshore accounts in Switzerland and other countries. Ultimately, the Swiss government was forced to change its tax treaty with the United States in order to turn over the names of more than 4,900 American taxpayers who held illegal offshore accounts.