The fake Jafarli letter broke something inside Birkenfeld. His own government had betrayed him. The DOJ had tailed him to Mexico, pulled his friend off a plane, stolen the guy’s identity, and used it to try to scare him into silence. He grew up believing in the Constitution and fair trials. Now he felt like a mob informant who accidentally confessed to a dirty cop.
Birkenfeld is still sitting across from DOJ prosecutors Downing and Kelly, dropping bombshell after bombshell. He tells them about a UBS client named Abbas who held $420 million in six numbered accounts. This guy made his fortune through illegal oil deals with Saddam Hussein’s regime. The single largest account holder on the American desk.
The Department of Justice did not want Bradley Birkenfeld. He showed up anyway.
Kevin Downing, a senior prosecutor in the DOJ Tax Division, had a problem. Two lawyers were calling on behalf of an anonymous Swiss banker who claimed to have the goods on the biggest tax fraud case in US history. Names of rich Americans hiding money in Swiss accounts. Names of Swiss banking officials who ran the whole scheme. Names of American politicians who knew about it.
Birkenfeld is ready to blow the whistle. But first he needs lawyers. And that turns out to be way harder than he expected.
Chapter 7 opens with a Roman emperor quote about fear, and honestly it fits perfectly. Birkenfeld just sued UBS and won his bonus. But winning money was never the point. The real fight was just starting.
After discovering the three-page memo that basically proved UBS was setting up its own bankers as fall guys, Birkenfeld doesn’t run. He fights back. This chapter is where he stops being a loyal employee and starts playing chess.
The party was still going, but the music was getting worse. This is the second half of Chapter 5 in my Lucifer’s Banker Uncensored retelling series.
By his fourth year at UBS, Birkenfeld knew the good times had an expiration date. Everything he was doing was perfectly legal in Switzerland. But back in America, the same activity was a federal crime. That gap was starting to weigh on him.
The second half of this chapter reads like a spy movie crossed with a luxury travel brochure. UBS trains its bankers to evade customs agents. Birkenfeld builds his own client pipeline. And the money just keeps rolling in.
Chapter 4 opens with Birkenfeld cruising Geneva in a candy-apple red Ferrari 365 GT Spyder. A $250,000 car. Not his money though. This was “OPM” – Other People’s Money. His overseas clients would tell him what car they wanted, he would buy it, slap on Finnish tax-free plates, and stash it in a luxury garage. When they visited, he handed them the keys. The rest of the time? He drove it himself. Nice perk.