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In 2007, Bradley Birkenfeld decided to tell the DOJ what he knew about UBS`s practices. At the same time, he wanted to use a new federal whistleblower law, the Tax Relief and Public Health Act 2006, which could pay him up to 30% of the tax revenue benefiting from the IRS based on Birkenfeld`s information. Birkenfeld also wanted immunity from prosecution for his role in the Ubs affairs. [6] In April 2007, Birkenfeld`s lawyer provided the DOJ with a summary of Birkenfeld`s information. The DOJ responded that it was not part of the IRS whistleblowing program and that Birkenfeld would not grant immunity. [6] Nevertheless, Birkenfeld met with the DOJ. When communication between Birkenfeld and the DOJ ended, Birkenfeld contacted the Securities and Exchange Commission, the IRS and the U.S. Senate. [6] The first major tax evasion controversy in which the bank was involved took place in 2007. Bradley Birkenfeld, an American banker at UBS Switzerland AG, has breached Swiss banking secrecy in order to pass on information to clients to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which accuses of suspected tax evasion. Following an investigation, UBS was fined $780 million and secured a limited law enforcement agreement, considered a historic event in the Swiss banking sector. Despite the brief decline in bank secrecy, the country has tightened its banking secrecy laws and UBS has adopted an international “Customer Privacy Code” to protect customer information from disclosure. UBS obtained a deferred lawsuit agreement with the Justice Department over its practices in February, agreed to hand over about 300 names of U.S.

account holders, and admitted to illegally using offshore units, fake papers and questionable client recruitment. UBS also paid a $780 million fine. On February 18, 2009, UBS agreed to pay a $780 million fine to the U.S. government and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement on charges of conspiracy to mislead the United States by blocking the internal revenue service. Of the $780 million UBS will pay, $380 million represents a benefit from its cross-border operations; the balance represents U.S. taxes that UBS did not withhold from the accounts. [19] [20] Figures include interest, penalties and refunds for unpaid taxes. As part of the agreement, UBS also compensated the Securities and Exchange Commission for acting as a non-registered broker/trader and investment advisor to the Americans. [21] In addition, UBS paid US$200 million for comparison with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to avoid proceedings concerning UBS`s alleged conduct, which would have facilitated the ability of some U.S. clients to have undisclosed accounts in Switzerland and other countries, allowing these clients to obtain taxes on assets on those accounts.

[22] WASHINGTON – UBS AG, Switzerland`s largest bank, has entered into a deferred lawsuit agreement for conspiracy to defraud the United States by obstructing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as the Department of Justice announced today.