hi, everyone. welcome to "on the money." from the battlefield to the boardroom. helping vets find jobs. bank secrecy. how one helped shine a light on the mysterious world of swiss banking. he went to jail. why he says his reward of $100 million is just not enough. >> i did something unprecedented. >> one war photographers remarkable story and how social media is changing what she does. >> helping veterans make the most of their money. benefits for those who serve. "on the money" starts right now. >> your money, your life, your

future. now, becky quick. >> here is a look at what is making news as we go into a new week "on the money." the all new housing market may be seeing signs of life. they jumped to an eight-year high in april. workers started work on 1.1 million homes last month. that is the most since 2007. the s&p 500 hit a record high. e nasdaq was within 1% of it's all-time high as well as low volatility continues. >> the federal reserves open market committee released minutes from the competing and they say their rate hike is unlikely. they say recent sluggishness in the economy was transitory and due to rough winter weather and a slow down in ports. if you're taking a plane this summer, good luck you'll have plenty of company.

summer airline travel is supposed to reach an all-time high because of the strengthening economy. 222 million passengers will fly over the summer. that is up 4% from last year. get ready, you may end up in a middle seat. this is memorial day weekend. the unofficial kick off to summer. a time to honor and remember who gave their lives to our country. it may not be easy, especially when it comes to finding a job. >> the rate fello 5.4% in april, but those numbers don the story of the sometimes difficult transition for vets. the jobless rate rose to 6.9% in april. that is more than 200,000 veterans struggling to find a job. it is even worse for women and those of african-american and hispanic decent. it is a misunderstanding about

disabilities. 29% of those who serve since 9/11 have a service related disability and up to 20% may experience post-traumatic stress disorder in a year. the good news, once recent veterans find a job, they earn 11% more than their nonveteran peers. >> helping them leverage their skills is the goal at a new program at the university of southern california. usc's psychological of business offers an mvp, james bogle and blake pickell join us today. james, let's start with you. why is there a need for a master of business program specifically for veterans. how is the curriculum different from the traditional mba? >> i would say it is driven by the demand.

there is a tremendous interest in the program like this. >> what kind of interest have you seen so far? >> there is lots and lots of inquiries and applications. unfortunately we can only accommodate 50 students at a time at this point. but there is many people in quiring into it. >> blake, i want to congratulate you. i know it has only been a we e you graduated, how do you feel right now. >> i feel great, i'm very proud to be a member of cohort 2. i'm just looking to get lots of money from various companies. >> anyone related to a company watching, make sure you give blake a call. you were an officer in the air force, why did you enroll and what skills were you looking to develop? >> i went to the air force academy to serve my country and to basically get technical skills in engineering and program management. and i really thought when i first got there that was all i

wanted, but i also got a lot of leadership skills and developed a great work ethic that carried me through my life. >> i would assume, james, there is a lot of skills that people in the military already come with and are ready to go into the business world. what are some military skills that maybe don't translate? >> we found that it is a very different style of leadership. the military is a very distinct, professional culture. the way we talk to each other in the military. the way we direct operations. there is doctrine under pinning everything that you do. there is a tremendous amount of predictability in the military that really doesn't necessarily translate into the civilian professional word either. >> blake, what is the biggest difference you learned between y and the business leadership class? >> the real things i learned are some of the tangible hard skills whether it is statistics, finance, or accounting, things i

didn't really have in the air force because we're basically a nonprofit organization. i gained skills that i need to of my organization. >> james your students come from all branchs of the military, are they looking to be corporate role entrepreneurs. >> their ambitions are as varied as their backgrounds. several want to go on into corporate roles. many of them have transitioned from the service already or some of them are in the reserve components. so they already have a civilian career established and they're looking to advance in that career, and especially in this most recent cohort, there is a tremendous entrepreneurial spirit and many are looking to launch their own ventures, too. >> blake, what is your dream job? >> really my dream job would be to go to a start up, work at a start up, and then start my own

i first came to the program i always thought i would be a corporate guy. but when i got there i got the start up and venture bug. i really enjoyed it and enjoyed it and the focus on technology. >> thank you for joining us and i want to offer congratulations to both of you. sounds like a terrific program. blake, congratulations. >> thank you very much, becky. up next, we're on the money. fr convict to multimillionaire. e longest running tax evasion scandal in history is not there yet. the photographer that built a career on the pictures that tell more than 1,000 words. as go to a break, look at how we live in a pick and choose world.

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you may not have heard of bradley birkenfeld, but the interm revenue service and other agencies are well aware of who he is. he is a former private banker for a swiss bank. eamon javers is here with the story. >> bradley birkenfeld hat dozens of accounts kept hidden from the u.s. government. he blew the whistle on the experience and he endured highs and lows along the way. his story is not over yet. bradley birkenfeld is taking a victory lap. >> i think i did something extraordinary, unprecedented,

and historic. >> for the first time since collecting a massive payout, he is talking about how he became embroiled in and then blew the whistle on the longest running evasion scandal in history. >> you c calcu the amount of money -- >> he was instrumental in the untraveling in swiss bank secrecy. there is no question able that. >> scott michael is an attorney specializing in evasion. >> he moves to earn his mba and he settled in geneva. he worked at ubs, one of the few americans al into the mysterious world of swiss banking. it was highly restrict only the people there. >> the way he described it, it sounds like part under cover agent and part personal assistant to the rich and

famous. >> you have doctors, lawyers, politicians, ceos. >> hollywood? >> hollywood as well. stars had accounts there as well. >> it is not a crime to have a swiss bank account, it is illegal to not report it to the irs which he says was usually the case. he adds there was other banking business trips to the united states. >> you were not a licensed banger in the united states. >> we were not registered or licensed to give investment advice. that was clearly a violation. >> whel he says ubs taught bankers to do business this way, they found a internal memo saying those practices were prohibited. >> they're training you on how to break the law, and the memo on how to follow the law is buried in the internet somewhere? birkenfeld said he complained

to lang authorities and then the justice department and other agencies. >> i gave them powerpoints, internal memorandum -- >> his inside information lead to ubs paying $780 million in penalties and admitting to conspireing to defraud the u.s. peoe like birkenfeld who was seasonsed to 40 months in prison. a spokes woman for the bank says the business described has been closed since 2008. ubs today is a different firm with a different focus and senior management team. birkenfeld says he was vindicated when he received an enormous reward. >> the payment of $104 million was the largest of any kind in the country. >> his attorney says he deserves

more, a percentage of everything that they collected from all swiss banks. >> should you get a billion? >> talk to my lawyers on that. >> two million? >> talk to my lawyers. >> it appears his battle is not over yet. >> he is on probation until november. he tells us he is likely to leave the country once he is from from the department of justice. >> he thinks he deserves more. >> he says he doesn't feel to anything more than the law requires. under e whistleblowing provision, you get a percentage of thing that you bring in for the u.s. he and his lawyers are arguing he should get all of the money that came into all of the u.s. treasury from all of the swiss banks all together. >> would you do 2.5 years to get $100 million at the end? >> he did not kn he w prison that he would get all of this money. he had to sweat it out in a

prison which is not fun, but a lot of people would say i would do that deal. i don't th i would, personally. i have small kids. he was no kids, never married, it is a different equation for him. >> thank you, fascinating story. >> up next, we're on the money. why steven spielberg and others came calling for a photographers war stories. later, a helping hand for returning vets and their families.

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serve. get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. life behind the lens can lead a photographer to some of the world east most devas conflict zones in pursuit of the truth creating images to tell stories of the world. lynsey addario was captured twice. thank you for being here today. >> thank you for having me. >> you worked in parts of the world and in situations where women rarely are. what led you to getting into the pursuit of war photography? >> i never set out to be a war photographer. i grew up in connecticut and was the daughter of a hairdresser. and i sort of moved overseas in 2000 and i started covering afghanistan under the taliban. i lived in india, many of the

journalists were covering afghanistan, and it was a gradual process. some of the stories drew me into these places that happened to be in conflict zones. >> a lot of people remember the stories of what happened to you. you were kidnapped with a new york city coworker, what happened in that situation? >> it was during the uprising in libya. it was very ad hoc. the fighting with the rebels was coming from the east. gadhafi's troops were moving in from the west. we were positioned behind the rebels but the front line was moving very quickly and the troops came in and took over the city. instead of coming behind, from sort of behind us, they flanked the desert and they went all of the way around and set up a check point in front us. we ran directly into one of gad

daf check points when we fled. >> were there moments you thought you would die? >> absolutely. it was seven days but it felt like a lifetime. we were beaten repeatedly. we were hit. for me as the only woman i was groped repeatedly. we were tied up and blindfolded for much of the first three days. the entire time we thought there might be a chance we were killed. when you're captive we have no idea if you will survive until you're released and across the border of that country. >> let's talk about how the world has changed in the time that you have been a war photographer, too. it seems that everybody has a phone with a camera on it these days. how does that impact what photographers do in some of these areas? >> i sort of learned on the job and i feel like i know about the ethics of journalism and how to be a good journalist and how to verify my facts.

there are so. people with cameras now that file pictures, put pictures on social media, whose publications reprint the pictures, but it's important that people differentiate bet the sources of the images. the trained journalists. >> it's been reported there was a hollywood bidding war to tell the story. g could be making a phen spoo movie. >> there is people interested. it's hard to comment on who exactly will end up doing what because we're so far out. the screen play has not been written yet, but the great thing abou more people will know more about the stories that i care so deeply about. >> lynsey, thank you for joining us. up next, a look at the news for the week ahead, and home loans,

college tuition, benefits for american veterans and their transiti.

for more on our show and guests, you can go to our website. follow us on twitter. here are the stories that affect you this week. costco will be reporting

quarterly earn agos. on monday the markets are closed for memorial day. tuesday durable goods orders are due they range from refrigerators to airplanes and things that don't need to be purchased regular. >> and a ncfo at google whether have her first day. and e second estimate for gdp will be released. it is memorial day weekend and america is paying tribute to the men and women who gave their lives to our country. it is also a time to think of our veterans. joining us right now is our gene your personal finance correspondent sharon epperson. we know that the economy has be recovering. it helped out americans across the board. i just wonder if that in itself is helping the transition for some of our veterans. >> it is but keep in mind it is a different situation when

you're used to a city paycheck, you're used to benefits available to you. many service members are able to built up savings even better in some cases. so those are issues that they really need to seek out some l counselling for and many just don't nowhere to turn. do to ease some of the strain. >> a lot of folks know what servs get in terms of benefits. one is that post 9/11 g.i. bill that can help them go to college and pay for tuition and fees. in some indications that's not enough. if they want a advanced degree that often not covered. they're still having to confront with a lot of student debt n is where leave to veteran behind scholarship program comes in. a lot of veterans may not know

that is available to them. that is retro active and what is not covered by the g.i. bill they can use the money from this scholarship to help them. >> what other benefits exist for the veterans and families? >> i mentioned that credit is a big issue for many. th may not realize there are resources throughout where they can get credit in terms of interest rates. the other thing to think about is home loans and more favorable firms there. low pmi, and small business loans and training available to veterans is also something that you want to think about. >> it is probably less important now in terms of the low home interest rates and things, but if the fed raises rates, i'm sure it becomes more attractive. >> yes, and when you're looking at interest rates on what is really hurting a lot of folks and that is on their credit card. going somewhere like usaa, other

military credit unions to find out where the lowest rates are and where you can get rates on other products you may want to pursue that as could find much lower interest rates. >> that's the show for today, i'm becky quick, thank you for joining us. next, maybe your next date night should combine romance with finance. fo champagne, bring the calculator instead. have a great one, we'll see you

nbc bay area news, starts now. right now, 4:30, suvs tossed like toys, people trapped in their home. showing you how bad flash floods are in texas tonight. how much damage raging waters are leaving behind. >> giving drivers a break. how expensive traffic tickets have become. and by how much. the governor wants to cut them. >> and fighting back against a curfew in oakland. more protests planned in the streets tonight. good evening to you, i'm peggy bunker. >> more