Yesterday I ranted about the proliferation of non-decent behavior FUBAR-ing up America. I have a list of personal experiences stored in the Ye Shall Not Slight Me portion of my grudge cortex, which gets bigger every year, thus dispelling the myth that the aging brain shrinks. Ha! I will comment on this blight of slights for future blogs.
In the meantime, I listened to Democracy Now! this morning and guess what the topic was about? Those grand-scale offenders: BANKERS!
This story is a doozy. It’s an interview with Stephen Kohn, the executive director of National Whistleblowers Center and an attorney representing a jailed banker named Bradley Birkenfeld.
Here’s a synopsis:
The largest bank in the world is the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS). There are 19,000 Americans who hold secret accounts at this bank. The purpose of the secrecy is to shield their wealth from the IRS and avoid paying taxes. The 19,000 accounts add up to about $20 billion in assets. NO TAXES were ever paid on this money.
Until…
Birkenfeld, an American, worked for UBS as a manager of the Americans-hiding-their-wealth-and-scamming-the-IRS Department. In 2007 he provided the US Justice Department with information/names of people participating in this widespread tax evasion scheme. As a result, the Treasury Department was able to recover $3-$5 billion in unpaid taxes and $780 million in fines.
None of the tax evaders received any jail time. But Birkenfeld–who did not have a secret account; that did not invent the department; who did not cheat on his taxes; and was “only doing his job,” (I guess before his conscience got to him) was sentenced to 40 months. The Justice Dept. said that he did not disclose information about a particular Russian guy from California hiding $200 million. This is a total lie. (BTW, the Russian guy was caught and even he didn’t serve jail time.)
There is a division of UBS in the U.S. called UBS America. The head of this bank is Robert Wolf. He is a close confidant of Obama. He hosted a fundraiser in NY for Obama. He worked for Obama on an economic commission. He plays golf with Obama.
Wolf says UBS America is not connected to the activities of the UBS. Birkenfeld says it is—and provided particulars and details.
Who do you believe?
Here’s what I think:
This whole Swiss tax evasion fraud STINKS. The U.S. Department of Justice stinks. Obama stinks. The UBS secret American bank accounts stink. And the wealthy Americans who think their shit doesn’t stink and don’t have to pay taxes like the rest of us are the foulest stench-ridden vermin of the bunch.
What is also disgusting is that the US Senate has estimated that there is about $100 billion PER YEAR lost in tax revenue because of these type of secret accounts. So you have a guy—the first and ONLY guy in the banking world—who tells the government extraordinarily valuable information (that recovers billions of dollars) and what do you do with him? You put him in prison! Huh?
Do you think this action will inspire any other whistleblowers to come forward with information about those robbing the American people blind? Is someone sending a message to Mr. Birkenfeld to shut up about what he knows? Does this prison sentence set the precedent that if you mess with a FOOB (Friend Of Obama Banker) you go to jail?
Something is rotten in America: it’s the indecent behavior by BANKERS and their putrid offspring: self-serving politicians (oxymoron), corrupt justice department officials (I hope that is not an oxymoron), and lowest of the low—tax-cheating Americans who are actually cheating their fellow Americans.
To these turds-for-morals money-worshipping unindicted felons: You’re a puss-oozing carbuncle on the backs of hard-working HONEST Americans. You are stinkin’ up the joint.
GET OUT.
OR pay your fair share. And PAY FOR THE PRIVELEGE of being an American.
