Whistleblower: Some U.S. pols kept off-shore accounts with UBS

NY Daily News ^ | 4/16/10 | Juan Gonzalez

[jimbo123]

A former banker who blew the whistle on thousands of secret bank accounts rich Americans held at Swiss giant UBS claimed Thursday some U.S. politicians also kept off-shore accounts with the bank.

"We had an office in Washington that we all referred to as the PEP office - for 'Politically Exposed People,'" Bradley Birkenfeld said.

He was speaking by phone - on tax day, no less - from Schuylkill County federal prison in Pennsylvania, where he is serving a 40-month sentence for his role in the tax evasion scheme.

"Only top managers from the bank knew the names of the political clients," Birkenfeld said.

Executives from the bank's U.S. subsidiary, UBS America, he added, helped promote those off-shore accounts through a New York "referral desk" that steered U.S. clients to their Swiss colleagues, and through dozens of high society events that the U.S. subsidiary often sponsored.

[meadsjn]

“Dead Man Talking”

[Hypo]

Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS Americas, who has bundled more than $370,850 for Barack Obama so far this year, is one of the most embarrassing skeletons in BO’s money closet, now that the financial institution Wolf heads up in America has been outed in The Nation’s Attack of the Global Pirate Bankers.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/4088

[stinkerpot65]

The only one to see prison time is the original voluntary whistleblower in the case. American prosecutors are corrupt beyond belief.

[phockthis]

ping

[alice_in_bubbaland]

For starters, Ted Kennedy was rumored to have off shore bank accounts.

[DemforBush]

Paging Barney’s frank.

I'd really rather you didn't! :-)

[jimbo123]

What about Charlie Rangel?

[Recovering_Democrat]

All Republicans on the list will be ripped new a-holes, Demonrats will be shoved under the rug.

[Travis McGee]

I’d like to see the list.

But the smarter ones probably own offshore real estate, given as gifts.