Chapter 1: Making the Cut - How Birkenfeld Joined the Swiss Banking Elite

Chapter 1 of Lucifer’s Banker is basically a backstory episode. Before the Swiss bank accounts and the billion-dollar fraud, Bradley Birkenfeld was just a kid from Massachusetts with too much energy and a nose for making money.

The Castle on the Hill

Birkenfeld grew up in a place his town called “The Castle.” A massive six-bedroom stone house with turrets and lead-paned windows in Hingham, Massachusetts. Sounds fancy. But his dad bought it in the late 1960s for less than a Jeep Wrangler costs today. And the boys earned their keep. Every week they mowed five acres of lawn and shoveled a 300-foot driveway.

His dad was a neurosurgeon. Work hard, study harder, enjoy your free time only when you earned it. His mom was a former fashion model turned stay-at-home nurse. And his uncle was Major General E. Donald Walsh, a decorated combat veteran of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. That uncle gave young Brad his taste for adrenaline.

The Troublemaker with a Plan

Brad was the third kid. His older brothers were the responsible ones heading into medicine and law. Brad was the one with “a glint in his eye.” By eighteen he owned a Colt .45 pistol, was jumping out of airplanes, and dragging his friends on multi-day survival treks through Vermont.

But he was not just a wild kid. He wanted to be a fighter pilot. So he enrolled at Norwich University, the oldest private military academy in the country. Air Force ROTC. The works.

The VCR Hustle

Here is where you see the future banker. Sophomore year, bored out of his mind, Birkenfeld noticed that cadets at Norwich had nothing to do in the freezing Vermont winters. No entertainment. Just snow and regulations.

So he and his roommate pooled their cash, drove to Boston, and came back with four VCRs, thirty movie tapes, and a color TV. They turned their dorm room into a mini movie theater. Wood paneling. Wall-to-wall carpet. Lounge chairs. Popcorn at a “reasonable rate.”

The cadets loved it. Business boomed. And when their Colonel showed up at the door one night for an inspection, Birkenfeld braced for punishment. Instead, the Colonel looked around and said: “I’m impressed, gentlemen. This is considerably nicer than my own quarters. Carry on.”

Birkenfeld had already checked the regulations. Nothing against making money on campus.

The Fighter Pilot Dream Dies

By senior year, Birkenfeld had it all figured out. Except he did not. That same Colonel pulled him aside on the parade field and gave it to him straight. “You’re never going to be a fighter pilot, Brad.” The reasons: he was a finance major, not engineering. His GPA was a 3.0, not a 4.0. And at his height, he was simply too big to fit in an F-16 cockpit.

The alternative? “A missile launch officer one mile underground in Nebraska.”

Birkenfeld took it well. He already knew the odds. And more importantly, he had already discovered his real talent. Two summers working at State Street Bank in Boston had shown him something: the money in banking was seductive, and he had a weakness for cash.

Off to London

In winter 1987, Birkenfeld packed his bags and headed to Richmond College in London to finish his last semester overseas. He was done chasing fighter jets. He was going to conquer the world of finance instead.

The chapter ends with a line that hits different when you know what comes next: “I was ready to conquer the world.” And then: “That’s how I embarked on that long road, which included a pit stop in a prison cell.”

Book: Lucifer’s Banker Uncensored by Bradley C. Birkenfeld | Amazon

Previous: Prologue

Next up: Chapter 2 Part 1 - Boston Massacre

Part of the Lucifer’s Banker Uncensored series