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Grant Clemency to Bradley Birkenfeld! |
Today is tax day, the day that honest hardworking Americans file their tax returns. But on tax day this year a great injustice continues: whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld, who exposed UBS' $20 billion offshore illegal tax fraud scheme, remains incarcerated in federal prison. The person solely responsible for the recovery of billions of U.S. tax dollars is the same person who has served more time than anyone connected to the UBS scandal.
Today is also the day that President Obama can fix this injustice by
issuing a full presidential pardon or commuting Mr. Birkenfeld's
sentence to time-served immediately. Mr. Birkenfeld put tax
money back in the hands of every American. We must return the favor and
demand the he be released from prison.
The Department of Justice admitted that "but for Mr. Birkenfeld" the
illegal UBS tax scheme would not have been discovered by the U.S.
government. As a direct result of Mr. Birkenfeld's disclosures UBS
agreed to pay a $780 million fine, the creation of an IRS amnesty
program under which 14,700 people declared illegal secret bank accounts,
and the shutdown of the entire $20 billion UBS illegal offshore
program.
President Obama has an opportunity today to send a message that the U.S.
will protect and encourage whistleblowers in the international banking
industry, not destroy them. Tax cheats are still out there, and
we will need more insiders like Mr. Birkenfeld to catch them.
Issuing a presidential pardon or commuting Bradley Birkenfeld's sentence
to time served is absolutely critical to ensuring that the radical
chilling effect created by Mr. Birkenfeld's sentence is reversed.
TAKE
ACTION! Tell President Obama that we must be serious about catching tax
cheats!
To pass this message on to your friends and family, click
here.
For the international version of this alert, please click
here.
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Tags: Action Alerts, Corporate Accountability, Bradley Birkenfeld - Archive
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