UBS whistleblower: U.S. prosecutor obstructed probe (DOJ obstruction of justice and intimidation)

Reuters via Guardian UK ^ | 10/29/2010 | Tom Brown

[Qbert]

MIAMI, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The jailed whistleblower in a landmark tax evasion case against UBS AG is accusing a top U.S. Justice Department lawyer of "criminal conduct" for thwarting his efforts to cooperate with investigations of the Swiss bank by federal regulators and the U.S. Senate.

Bradley Birkenfeld, who was instrumental in exposing widespread tax evasion by wealthy American clients of UBS, detailed the alleged misconduct involving the Justice Department's Kevin Downing in a telephone interview on Thursday.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. The 45-year-old former UBS banker spoke to Reuters from the federal prison in Pennsylvania where he began serving a 40-month sentence in January.

The UBS case has been hailed as a major breakthrough in the U.S. effort to crack down on offshore tax evasion. But Birkenfeld has repeatedly criticized the Justice Department's handling of the case against Switzerland's largest bank.

Downing was the department's chief prosecutor in the case, and Birkenfeld said his missteps marred it from the beginning. He said that thanks to Downing's actions, and a lack of oversight or inter-agency cooperation on the case, many key clients -- including a well-known Hollywood actor and public officials or "politically exposed persons" with secret Swiss accounts totaling more than $25 million -- will probably never be held accountable as tax cheats.

Until now, Birkenfeld had stopped short of revealing what his attorneys describe as serious witness intimidation and obstruction of justice allegations against Downing. He said the Justice Department's Oct. 23 dismissal of the criminal case against UBS was one of the main reasons he was going public with his accusation now.

[Qbert]

Obama has lots of ties to UBS Americas President (and Obama donor) Robert Wolf. According to this (not sure who wrote it):

"Wolf during Obamas campaign collected $370,850 for Obama making UBS the fifth largest contributor to the Obama election campaign. Within days of the UBS settlement of $780,000,000 to settle civil and criminal charges with US government, Obama appointed Wolf to the White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Then UBS received 2.5 billion through AIG for financial bailout. Perhaps UBS paid nothing at all and was reimbursed and even compensated for cooperating with the IRS attack on their account holders from the USA that the bank had. While the golf game was going on UBS fall guy Bradley Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months in jail but his sentence does not start yet so he can appeal sentencing..."

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19191734/Obama-Playing-Golf-with-UBS-America-President-Robert-Wolf

[piasa]

“Within days of the UBS settlement of $780,000,000 to settle civil and criminal charges with US government, Obama appointed Wolf to the White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board. “

[Lancey Howard]

LOL!
Surprise, surprise... the Ubanga regime is sleazy and corrupt.