Chapter 8 Part 2: The Mexico Setup - The Fallout

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 prosecutors lean in. Finally paying attention.

Then Birkenfeld adds one more detail: Abbas is good friends with Rudy Giuliani.

Record scratch. Downing, a New Yorker, immediately throws his hand up and starts repeating like a broken robot: “We’re not interested in non-Americans!” Giuliani was riding high in the presidential polls at the time. That name was radioactive.

The Art Basel Plan

Birkenfeld pivots. He lays out what might be the most brilliant sting operation ever handed to law enforcement on a silver platter.

Every December, UBS sponsors the Art Basel Exhibition in Miami. The real purpose? Fly Swiss private bankers to the US to recruit wealthy Americans into secret accounts. Birkenfeld had everything: names of each banker coming, their hotel rooms, cell phone numbers, email addresses. Each banker carried encrypted laptops with data on up to 200 American clients.

His plan was simple. Coordinate with Homeland Security. Intercept the bankers at the airport or hotels. Grab the laptops before anyone hits the panic button that wipes all data. One coordinated move could expose over a thousand secret American accounts.

Downing’s response? “You watch too much TV. That’s Hollywood.”

Meeting over. The prosecutors marched out. Downing’s parting shot: “Come up with some serious information about American tax-evaders, and we might consider your needs.”

The Escape to Cancun

Birkenfeld was furious. Back at his hotel, ready to trash the room like a rock star, he gets a call from his buddy Ladjel Jafarli, a managing director at Credit Suisse. Pure coincidence, Ladjel was also in Washington. Within hours they were on a private jet to Cancun. Four days at the Ritz-Carlton. Pool drinks. Sailing. A much-needed reset.

On the way back, US regulations required their private jet to stop at El Paso for customs. ICE agents pulled Ladjel off the plane for fifteen minutes. Copied his passport. Asked some questions. Let him go. Seemed harmless at the time.

The Poisoned Letter

A week later, back in Geneva, Birkenfeld gets a tense call from Ladjel. Someone had sent a letter to UBS headquarters – signed with Ladjel’s name – tipping off the bank that Birkenfeld was cooperating with the US Justice Department.

The letter was clearly fake. Awkward phrasing like “unprofessional actuations.” Ladjel’s English was perfect. The signature was typed, not handwritten. A forgery.

But who wrote it? Only Birkenfeld’s lawyers knew about the DOJ meetings. Ladjel had no clue about any of it. Then Birkenfeld remembered that customs stop in El Paso. The feds had grabbed Ladjel’s identity and used it to craft a fake letter, blowing Birkenfeld’s cover to UBS.

The realization hit hard. Someone inside the US government was not trying to help him. They were trying to get him thrown into a Swiss prison. Or worse.

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Part of the Lucifer’s Banker Uncensored series