A reporter from World Radio Switzerland recently interviewed Stephen Kohn on Bradley Birkenfeld, the Swiss banker who blew the whistle on secret offshore accounts. Mr. Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center, recently became Mr. Birkenfeld’s lawyer, and is urging the U.S government to review the case. Although he exposed billions of dollars in tax fraud, Mr. Birkenfeld was sentenced to over 3 years in prison in August.
Mr. Birkenfeld is entitled to 15-30% of the money accrued under the IRS tax whistleblower provision, yet he is being punished in exchange for the valuable information he handed over. Punishing Mr. Birkenfeld does a disservice to national and international anti-corruption efforts and discourages other international bankers from coming forward and blowing the whistle.
You can find the entire interview with Stephen Kohn by clicking here.
*Erin Jensen (a NWC intern) contributed to this posting.