UBS Whistleblower Calls for Switzerland to Make Changes to Protect Whistleblowers

Mary Jane Wilmoth

Published On: February 4th, 2016

Swiss bank whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld was featured yesterday in an article detailing the extremely hostile environment that exists in Switzerland toward whistleblowers. In the article Birkenfeld states that change is “long overdue” for the country which has prosecuted several whistleblowers in recent years.

Switzerland lawmakers have drafted whistleblower legislation which has been strongly criticized as being “even worse” as having no law. The draft law would require employees to report concerns to their companies first and then wait 60 days to see if any action is taken before they could contact a government authority to make a report. The draft law does not contain any protection from retaliation for employees.

Read the full article here: $104 Million UBS Informer Tells Swiss to Back Whistleblowers

Mr. Birkenfeld is the world’s largest Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Fraud Whistleblower. He was rewarded for disclosing illegal offshore Swiss banking that resulted in over $5 billion recovered for U.S. taxpayers. Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto represented Mr. Birkenfeld in his IRS Whistleblower case.