Justice Department prosecutors asked a federal judge Tuesday to cut a potential five-year prison sentence in half for a diamond-smuggling banker who exposed a vast scheme by Switzerland’s UBS bank to help wealthy Americans hide their assets in offshore accounts and shell companies to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
Bradley Birkenfeld, the former director of UBS private banking division, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge William Zloch in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after he denied a prosecution motion to extend the sentencing date a fifth time.
