Former UBS AG private banker Bradley Birkenfeld, the key informant in the landmark U.S. case against the Swiss banking giant, reported to a federal prison in Pennsylvania Friday, while his lawyers stepped up their criticism of the U.S. Justice Department for prosecuting him.

MINERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) -- A former banker who provided key assistance in the U.S. tax evasion probe of Swiss banking giant UBS AG reported to prison Friday and said his cooperation should have earned him the federal government's gratitude, not time behind bars.

MINERSVILLE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS AG banker who became the whistleblower in the U.S. government's tax probe of the Swiss bank, on Friday began a 40-month prison term that he had sought to reduce and delay.

 
MIAMI (AP) -- The key whistleblower in the tax evasion investigation of Swiss bank UBS AG claimed in a complaint Tuesday that prosecutors made false statements to a judge who sentenced him to prison.

MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday upheld the prison sentence of a key informant in the tax fraud case against Swiss bank UBS AG and ordered him to start serving his 40-month term as scheduled this Friday.

January 4, 2010 (Tax Notes). Sudden changes are seldom witnessed in the tax world. History teaches that for every brilliant tax reform proposal, there is a well-organized lobby seeking to preserve the status quo. Consider offshore tax evasion. For decades policymakers have decried the ability of Americans to illegally shelter assets offshore while failing to declare the related income on their tax returns. Yet the IRS often seems unable to do anything about this activity, and Congress has been perpetually unwilling to get serious on the issue.

As regular readers know, this publication has more than once likened tax havens to the proverbial whorehouse on the edge of town. Nobody wants to publicly defend their existence, yet they continue to be tolerated by the people who make the rules. The dirty little secret is that cross-border tax evasion has been a thriving business for generations. All that changed in 2009. Unless you've been living under a rock, you've noticed that the practice of tax law is significantly different today than it was just 12 months ago.

January 6, 2010 (New York Daily News). Barack Obama, who entered the White House promising all this change, should be hailing Bradley Birkenfeld as a modern-day hero.

He should erect a statue on Wall Street for this former banker for Swiss giant UBS who blew the whistle on the biggest tax-evasion scheme in U.S. history.

Instead of rewarding Birkenfeld, Obama's Justice Department is sending him to prison. He begins serving a 40-month federal sentence Friday for conspiracy and bank fraud.

What about his former bosses and fellow bankers at UBS and thousands of rich American clients who for decades stashed billions of dollars in secret UBS accounts to evade paying federal taxes?

Well, the government let them buy their way out of jail.

In recent days, numerous credible news media outlets have reported on what the UBS whistleblower, Bradley Birkenfeld, may make as a result of turning-in his former employer, the Zurich, Switzerland-headquartered bank, UBS AG.

 In the hush-hush world of Swiss banking, the unthinkable is happening: secrets are spilling into the open. 

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.