MIAMI (AP) - An imprisoned ex-Swiss banker credited with exposing
widespread tax evasion at Swiss bank UBS AG is seeking clemency from
President Barack Obama, his attorneys said Wednesday.
Lawyers at
the Washington-based National Whistleblowers Center said they will file a
clemency petition Thursday for Bradley Birkenfeld, timing it to
coincide with the day U.S. income tax returns are due for most people.
The petition seeks a reduction in Birkenfeld's three-year-plus sentence
for a fraud conspiracy conviction to time served since he reported to
prison Jan. 8.
The Justice Department has acknowledged Birkenfeld,
45, was vital in the UBS investigation, but was prosecuted because he
failed to disclose his own wrongdoing quickly enough. The probe resulted
in a $780 million fine against the bank and an unprecedented agreement
requiring UBS to turn over names of some 4,450 suspected American tax
dodgers to the Internal Revenue Service.
"On Tax Day, it is
absolutely critical that President Obama send a message that
whistle-blowers are welcome in the United States," said Stephen Kohn,
executive director of the Whistleblowers Center and one of Birkenfeld's
attorneys.
The Justice Department, which handles clemency requests
for the president, declined to comment Wednesday. Such petitions
generally remain under review for months; Obama has not yet granted a
pardon or reduced a prison sentence despite receiving more 2,300
requests, according to Justice Department figures.
In the
petition, Birkenfeld said that he met with federal investigators
voluntarily "at his own expense and risk to his life" and provided them
with hundreds of internal documents "recording the illegal actions of
UBS" and naming dozens of wealthy American tax cheats. Birkenfeld is a
U.S. citizen who lived in Switzerland for 15 years.
Prosecutors,
however, said he withheld information about his own dealings with
California billionaire Igor Olenicoff, a former UBS client who pleaded
guilty in 2007 to tax charges. Yet Birkenfeld said he did provide
disclosures about Olenicoff before he was indicted in the South Florida
tax case.
Birkenfeld is currently scheduled for release from a
Pennsylvania federal prison on Nov. 29, 2012, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Prisons. Prosecutors have said they may seek a sentence
reduction in return for Birkenfeld's continued cooperation, but have not
done so yet.
The Whistleblowers Center is also starting online
petition drive urging Obama to grant Birkenfeld clemency.
On the Net:
Whistleblowers Center:
http://www.whistleblowers.org
Justice
Dept. Office of Pardon Attorney:
http://www.justice.gov/pardon/
By CURT ANDERSON
(AP)
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