Free Republic

UBS, the world's largest wealth manager, is facing embarrassment over fresh revelations going back to the tax investigation that led to the collapse of Swiss banking secrecy. Two significant events are looming before UBS. The first is the possibility of a public trial in France, featuring UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld, concerning historic tax evasion allegedly orchestrated by the bank. That could happen this year. The other is the publication this October of Birkenfeld's scathing new book, Lucifer's Banker, which covers his time at UBS. The tax evasion controversy, which was first highlighted in 2005, subsequently involved the US Department of...

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...

Who Is Funding Barack Obama? by Paul Hollrah In a July 10 installment of “The World According to Barack,” we discussed Obama’s phenomenal fundraising juggernaut. Obama boasts of having built a contributor base of 1.5 million people, each contributing $5, $10, $20...or, as Obama assures us, “whatever they could afford.” Please do the math with me. The Obama campaign has disclosed that one-fourth, or $66.25 million of the $265 million reported as of May 31, 2008 (he has raised an additional $70 million during the month of June), came from those contributing $2,000, or more...which means that the remainder, or...