Tax Whistleblower Blog

The UBS Plot Thickens (and Stinks)

On July 28, 2009, Jeffrey P. Chernick, a former client of UBS Bank, pled guilty to filing a false tax return in violation of I.R.C. s. 7206.  However, in the midst of changing his plea to guilty, he revealed that a, yet unnamed, attorney had told him that a high-ranking Swiss official had accepted a bribe in exchange for ensuring that Chernick’s name would not be handed over to the IRS as part of the investigation and summons-enforcement case brought by the IRS against the embattled bank.  The Swiss official purportedly accepted a payment of $45,000.  Despite the bribe, Chernick’s information was given to the IRS as part of UBS’s $780,000,000 settlement in February.  The UBS saga was initiated by a Whistleblower pursuant to the Tax Whistleblower Reward Program.  In light of this revelation, the principals of http://www.RewardTax.com are concerned about what other manipulation and tainting of information could be occurring behind the Swiss shroud-of-secrecy.  Is the delay and challenge orchestrated by the Swiss government really a smoke-screen to give officials time to fudge records and remove the names of bidders willing to pay the right price?