Christopher Hunter's Blog

Jeremy’s post addresses an interesting issue: should whistleblowers be compensated or punished? Jeremy refers to an article in the Washington Post about ex-UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld who helped uncover a large Swiss banking scheme that helped Americans evade taxes. For this, he was awarded $104 million and sentenced to 40 months in prison.

Birkenfeld knowingly came out to the IRS about his bank’s actions, claiming that “he should not have to fear prosecution for turning over evidence”. While he was awarded considerably, he was still sentenced to more than three years in jail. The whole system is incredibly oxymoronic. I think that we should provide more security for whistleblowers; the threat of going to jail doesn’t provide much of an incentive to reveal any evidence. Additionally, I think that an award system is crucial as it provides further incentive to go forward. There needs to be a more direct system in place that encourages whistleblowers to go forward with useful evidence.

Picture Source:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444017504577645412614237708.html