Today Obama expressed support for a Senate bill aimed at stopping abuse of offshore tax havens:
"I look forward to working with Congress to turn these proposals into law so that honest Americans no longer shoulder the burden of the few individuals and businesses that put profit before responsibility."
That all sounds great Mr. President, but it doesn't look like DOJ received the memo. "Honest American" whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld - who voluntarily handed DOJ its biggest tax evasion case in history against UBS - is headed to jail, the DOJ attorneys who prosecuted Birkenfeld got a prestigious award, and all non-whistleblowing UBS executives seem to be freely enjoying their ill-gotten wealth and successful careers.
It seems Obama is not keeping tabs on how DOJ has been handling tax evasion cases, because the lay of the land in the offshore banking world does not jibe with the President's professed desire to stop illegal offshore tax havens:
Whistleblower Headed to Jail
DOJ aggressively prosecuted whistleblower Birkenfeld after he voluntarily came forward and, in DOJ's own words, provided information that was truthful, accurate, timely, and complete - information that has led, so far, to the discovery of thousands of illegal offshore accounts and $780 million in fines and penalties. Birkenfeld's reward for doing the right thing is a greater punishment than anyone he blew the whistle on.
Prosecuting Attorneys Accepting Awards
As Birkenfeld wears an electronic monitoring bracelet and awaits his time behind bars,the DOJ attorneys who prosecuted Birkenfeld - AUSA Jeff Nieman and senior trial attorney Kevin Downing - accepted the prestigious Marshall Award, established by the American Bar Association Justice Center.
Other UBS Executives Free and Happy
And what happened to the UBS executives Birkenfeld handed over to DOJ? UBS "kingpin" Martin Liechti - Birkenfeld's former boss - is living it up in Switzerland. Today, we found out that UBS Senior Executive Mark Branson has just been promoted to head the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority's (FINMA) banks division.
This does not sound like an administration dedicated to eliminating illegal offshore bank accounts. Obama's position on offshore banking closely resembles the Bush administration's position on torture: the President is proclaiming one principle - such as "we do not torture" - while the administration's policy is something wholly different - such as secretly authorizing torturous interrogation techniques. Obama needs to unlearn his predecessor's technique of saying one thing and doing another.
As long as Obama's DOJ keeps rewarding corrupt prosecutors, locking up whistleblowers, and softballing cases against non-whistleblowing wrongdoers, Obama's promises to "crack down on illegal overseas tax evasion," are nothing but, as Hamlet so eloquently put it, words, words, words.