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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

CASE NO. 08-60099-CR-ZLOCH

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. BRADLEY BIRKENFELD, Defendant. _____________________________________/

BRADLEY BIRKENFELD’S AGREED MOTION TO PERMIT BRIEF INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL TO PROVIDE TESTIMONY IN FRENCH LAW

ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDING Defendant Bradley Birkenfeld respectfully files this Agreed Motion to Permit Brief

International Travel to Provide Testimony in French Law Enforcement Proceeding.

Discussion

On February 3, 2015, Mr. Birkenfeld received a subpoena to appear before French

Magistrate Judge Guillaume Daieff in Paris, France on February 27, 2015. See Exhibit A

(Formal Request and English translation notarized with apostille). Judge Daieff is leading the

French law enforcement investigation into the activities of UBS, Mr. Birkenfeld’s former

employer. See Exhibit B (publicly available article regarding French investigation). The

subpoena commands Mr. Birkenfeld to assist the investigation by appearing before him to

provide testimony in his chambers in the Tribunal de Grande Instance (District Court). Through

French counsel, Mr. Birkenfeld has also been asked to provide documentary evidence.

The United States Department of Justice has confirmed the French authorities’ interest in

Gelber Schachter & Greenberg, P.A. 1441 Brickell Avenue ▪ Suite 1420 ▪ Miami, Florida 33131 ▪ www.gsgpa.com

Case 0:08-cr-60099-WJZ Document 104 Entered on FLSD Docket 02/13/2015 of 5


obtaining Mr. Birkenfeld’s testimony. Accordingly, Attorney Mark F. Daly of the Department

of Justice has authorized undersigned counsel to advise the Court that the United States assents

to the relief sought herein.

Because Mr. Birkenfeld remains on supervised release until November 2015, he requires

Court approval to travel to Paris, France for an estimated four days – arriving on February 25 and

returning on March 1 – in order to testify and assist the French investigation. This schedule

would allow sufficient time for Mr. Birkenfeld to meet with his French attorney in advance of

the court appearance and provide the necessary testimony before coming back to the United

States.

Although the Court has recently denied Mr. Birkenfeld’s motion to terminate or modify

his supervised release (D.E. #99, #101), this Motion to Permit International Travel does not seek

to alter any conditions other than to allow this brief trip overseas to assist a law enforcement

investigation. While abroad, Mr. Birkenfeld would comply with all conditions imposed by the

Court or the United States Probation Office, including reporting obligations and any other

restrictions. Upon return, Mr. Birkenfeld would resume supervision on the precise conditions

now in place and continue to comply with those conditions until his release term ends.

Mr. Birkenfeld’s assigned United States Probation Officer, Scott Christensen, has advised

that the Probation Office takes no position on this request for international travel.

Conference with Opposing Counsel

As set forth above, on February 13, 2015, Attorney Mark F. Daly of the United States

Department of Justice advised undersigned counsel that the United States agrees to the relief

sought herein.

2 Gelber Schachter & Greenberg, P.A.

1441 Brickell Avenue ▪ Suite 1420 ▪ Miami, Florida 33131 ▪ www.gsgpa.com



Conclusion

For the reasons set forth above, Bradley Birkenfeld respectfully requests that this Court

grant this Agreed Motion to Permit Brief International Travel to Provide Testimony in French

Law Enforcement Proceeding. A proposed order is attached hereto as Exhibit C.

Dated: February 13, 2015 Respectfully submitted,

/s/Gerald E. Greenberg GERALD E. GREENBERG Florida Bar No. 440094 [email protected] DAN GELBER Florida Bar No. 512877 [email protected] GELBER SCHACHTER & GREENBERG, P.A. 1441 Brickell Avenue Suite 1420 Miami, Florida 33131 Telephone: (305) 728-0950 Facsimile: (305) 728-0951 Counsel for Defendant Bradley Birkenfeld




mailto:[email protected]



CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I HEREBY CERTIFY that on this 13th day of February 2015, a true and correct copy of

the foregoing is being electronically filed with the Clerk of the Court using the CM/ECF filing

system. I also certify that the foregoing document is being served this date on all counsel of

record or pro se parties on the attached Service List in the manner specified, either via

transmission of Notices of Electronic Filing generated by the CM/ECF system or in some other

authorized manner for those counsel or parties who are not authorized to receive electronically

Notices of Electronic Filing.

/s/Gerald E. Greenberg GERALD E. GREENBERG





SERVICE LIST

Mark F. Daly US Department of Justice Tax Division 601 D. Street NW Room 7334 Washington, DC 20579 Telephone (202) 616-2245 Facsimile: (202) 616-1786 Email: [email protected] Attorney for United States of America





EXHIBIT A

Case 0:08-cr-60099-WJZ Document 104-1 Entered on FLSD Docket 02/13/2015 Page 1 of 11

EXHIBIT B


UBS Loses Court Appeal of $1.4 Billion French Bail Demand Don't Miss Out — Follow us on: by Jeffrey VoegeliGregory Viscusi 1:17 PM EDT September 22, 2014

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, must pay a 1.1 billion-euro ($1.4 billion) security deposit required by French investigators, a Paris court ruled.

The appeals court today upheld the bond request, made in July to cover a potential criminal penalty for alleged money laundering, a court official said. Under the original order, the payment was due by the end of this month. A further appeal would push back the deadline, the same official said.

“UBS is very disappointed at the decision,” the Zurich-based bank said in an e-mailed statement, adding it will appeal the ruling. It will also fight the underlying investigation, it said.

French President Francois Hollande has increased efforts to crack down on tax fraud since his former budget minister, Jerome Cahuzac, was forced to resign after his secret Swiss account was exposed. UBS, in its statement, denounced the investigation as a “highly politicized process” that hasn’t followed “elementary facets of the rule of law.”

The French bail order “shows a certain distrust toward the bank,” said Dieter Hein, a banking analyst at Fairesearch GmbH in Kronberg, Germany. “This seems to be a political statement; they want to send a message.”

UBS shares fell 1.5 percent to 16.37 Swiss francs in Zurich, bringing the decline this year to 3.3 percent.

No Sense Investigative judges in Paris, led by Guillaume Daieff, demanded the deposit after settlement talks broke down in July when UBS balked at pleading guilty, two people familiar with the events said last week. The French legal system only allows settlements in conjunction with a guilty plea, an admission UBS was concerned might hamper its business in the U.S., according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the circumstances are private.

Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti said in a Bloomberg Television interview on July 29 that the bail “makes no sense,” adding UBS had been in talks for a “double-digit million” settlement.

The UBS case serves as test of France’s tougher approach to combating alleged tax fraud. The government forecasts its efforts will yield almost 2 billion euros in back payments and fines from tax dodgers this year and next, not including any UBS penalty, a finance ministry official said.


http://www.bloomberg.com/authors/ARxrKR5JIO0/jeffrey-voegeli

http://www.bloomberg.com/authors/ARxrKR5JIO0/jeffrey-voegeli

HSBC Probe French investigators are also looking into whether HSBC Holdings Plc units encouraged tax evasion. No charges have been filed in that case. HSBC had about 3,000 French customers with as much as $5 billion invested at its Swiss unit, according to a July 2013 parliamentary report. Customer data provided in 2008 by Herve Falciani, a former HSBC software technician in Geneva, led to the French probe.

France first brought criminal charges against UBS and its French unit in mid-2013, accusing both of illegally soliciting clients in France. The French subsidiary was fined 10 million euros in June of that year by the banking regulator and reprimanded for control lapses that may have enabled some clients to evade taxes. In July, the judges also put UBS under investigation for laundering the proceeds of tax fraud.

UBS has been asking clients domiciled in European countries who have a banking relationship in Switzerland to provide documentation showing assets held at the bank comply with tax rules. The head of wealth management, Juerg Zeltner, said this month that most of those outside Italy and Greece will have done so by year-end, according to Finanz und Wirtschaft.

Belgium, Germany The bank paid about 300 million euros to the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia this year to settle a probe into whether it helped clients evade taxes, and faces another by authorities in Mannheim. The bank is under investigation in Belgium on suspicion of money laundering and organized crime.

The French tax authority is also looking into UBS’s dealings, and could make a separate claim at a later stage, three people with knowledge of the situation have said.

UBS will challenge the judicial process, including the right to a fair trial, at the European Court of Human Rights, it said in today’s statement.

“The chances to win a case at the European Court of Human Rights are slim, very slim,” said Rainer Schweizer, a law professor at University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The court acceptsabout 2.5 percent of the cases brought from Switzerland, and the success rate is about 1.5 percent, he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeffrey Vögeli in Zurich at [email protected]; Gregory Viscusi in Paris at [email protected]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Smith at [email protected]; Elisa Martinuzzi at [email protected] Frank Connelly

Article converted to word from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-22/ubs-loses-court-appeal-of-1-4-billion-french-bail-demand.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-22/ubs-loses-court-appeal-of-1-4-billion-french-bail-demand

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-22/ubs-loses-court-appeal-of-1-4-billion-french-bail-demand





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