tv The Whistleblowers RT December 2, 2022 10:30pm-11:01pm EST
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a pen to appease over the optimistic about the new cost as essentially office buffering. the timing is such that you know, 7 years since they got the contract and they now have the, the airplane, the prototype anyway, hasn't flown yet. so the ceremony tonight the unveiling was really it was kind of a non event in many ways it's a pretty airplane looks a lot like to be one that came before it. and it'll be interesting to see what the other countries have, how similar it looks because we've been, we've been down this road before. secretary defense austin did explain as we knew that you can carry nuclear weapons. and when he described that, he kind of stuttered a little bit on whatever he was reading it is really, it's
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a dangerous thing and it's, it's something that is probably not necessary. but what struck me is it kept talking about how this change is everything turn and the way i see it, it, it actually will just, it changes nothing. this is the same trajectory that it certainly the united states military has been on for 35 or more years. what's on the frame of this is news. oh, bob, next the whistle blow as well. my very favorite programs that we have here, and i'll see we back with i look forward to talking to you all that technology should work for people. a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders at conflict with the 1st law show your identification. we
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ah hello, you're watching the whistleblowers and i'm john. curiosity. today we're going to tell you about one of the most important whistleblowers in the world that you probably never heard of. on today's episode, we speak to the $1000000000.00 man. 2 2 2 2 2 2 we want to tell you about a banking whistleblower who has had a good later impact on the international financial system than anybody else in the world. bradley burke and feld was a long time banker and season financial expert for a series of some of the biggest and most important banks in switzerland. that is
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until he saw that international law was being broken. bread mercantile then brought down not just money laundering and income tax evasion in swiss banks. he brought down money laundering an income tax evasion, period. it's because of brad berkin felt that the wealthiest people in the world can no longer avoid paying the taxes that the rest of us must pay by hiding their money in numbers, accounts and the world's financial centers. and he paid for that public service with his freedom. when this was finally over, berkin felt published a memoir of his experience called lucifer's banker. the book has already been translated into more than a dozen languages and has become an international best seller. the accompanying website contains the primary source documentation about the case released to the public by wikileaks, what it shows is a pattern of corruption and deceit among officials in both the u. s. and swiss governments and the length to which they went to protect the rich and famous from prosecution. we now when a bring in the guest of the hour,
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brad berkin felt. so we're going to start brad by talking about how you got into this position in the 1st place, how you became a whistleblower. we'll start off with this with your pre whistle blowing life. you had a good life. you were a successful international banker. you would work for some of the most important banks in the world. you were making plenty of money. but then you saw something that bothered you and you decided to do something about it. walk us through how that happened. certainly. well i, i worked in switzerland in the plaza banking sector with credit suisse barclays, and yes. and my last employer, u b. s, i was a director there in geneva, switzerland. and what we were doing were, were covering the u. s. market out of switzerland. so we had offices in gano, geneva, and zurich, and we would travel every quarter to united states see existing and potential clients. anyways, what would happen is, is the bank would promote this,
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obviously to bring in more money to invest and to have net money. so over time, what happened was we didn't switch was totally legal. we were following swiss law. i was a resident there, i had to work permit there. and what they had done was essentially known that what we were doing was a gray area, meaning traveling us because we weren't license as you see, license to give the best advice and so forth. so mysteriously they slipped in a 3 page document to our internet. the internal computer system and my colleague brought it to my attention one day and i was a bit flustered by it because it look, i'm very busy. well, what you have to show me why it's important. in this 3 page document, we were never told about it, and we will never change on it, which is a big no, no. so anyways, i will show me where you've got this doctor. i've never seen this and he showed it to me on the internet. and i said go back to desk,
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i'll talk to you later. and i printed it off twice. and i read it. and it was shocking because essentially what this we page document said was what we were doing was not ok. and you were breaking the law. so really what the bank was trying to do with being greedy have us do this business, but putting all the risk on us and saying, you know, you got to do this. and obviously, you know, the levels you have to meet for your bonus and promotion all that they're promoting you to bring in more money obviously. so anyway, this document that's actually contradicted everything they would tell us to do. so i went to my boss and i said, well, what the hell is this a did, this is a very important matter. you're putting everybody at rest and this is not right. and everyone else on the desk with swiss sub 0 numeric chip. so i thought was happening, it was a c, y, a cover your ass for the right. so if we got caught,
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if we got caught, they would have blended on. i said, well, you read the memo, well, you have a trained on it. you didn't tell us about it and you secretly slipped it in the internet and you always say you have to know everything on the internet. well, so i made a big to do about it and i said, ok, you're going to play that game. so i immediately as a sure, as a director of the bags, i sent it to the head of my legal department and i said to have my compliance department to different areas. and so i need an answer, documents that e mail i sent and then printed it off and sent it also by intra office mail. so you can't claim you didn't get it. i did that for one month. and there was no answer which is very bizarre. as a director of the bank, you always go to legal compliance and try get an answer if you have a question. so then i sent it the following, no answer. so and sent it by inter office as well. so for me, i knew what was happening. it was sort of a set up and i saw what the bank was going to do. so i sort of check,
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made them and said ok, i'm just taking documents out of the bank. i wasn't stealing documents, i took documents that were given to. so that's my problem. everything from powerpoint presentations to accounting, phone, records of bankers. everything that you could piece and puzzled together to show what i was saying was correct. and then the 3rd month i sent it again and there was no answer. so then a week or 2 later i came in and i resigned and they said, well, why resigning as a, please don't play that game with me. you know exactly what's going on here. and i, one of the answers 3 page document is that, well, you'll never get an answer. i said, well, i guess again, you will get an answer and i'll make sure. so what happened was, i resigned and effectually, i then complained to the board of directors at the back, i said, i certified now to every member of you, be a sort of directors and zurich. and now to your problem your, you've been informed,
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you know, this is wrong and i'm holding you accountable. and that cause such a nuclear bomb in the batch. everyone was panicking now at this point, i'm outside the back because i believe the bank and they don't want you to work there anymore. when you resign. well, and you're still being paid in switzerland, called gardening, as if you would sit in your garden guard. but i was paid for 6 months and i did this quite quickly knowing that i had all the facts, i have my lawyer in geneva and he said, yeah, you can't work under these conditions. so they called an investigation and they asked me to help them. so i said you need me to help you tell you how you're breaking the law. wonderful. so i met with done with my attorney and i gave them some correct information on some incorrect information just to test. then about a week and a half later i met with some of my colleagues who were still working at the bank a bar or something. and i said when they talk about and all the things i mentioned,
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they didn't, they didn't investigate. so what do you mean is not in talk about that, but that's what i told them. so obviously this was another cover up even though it was put right under their noses. so that's when i went and picked up and i went to u. s. government hoping that my own government would actually embrace me with the most significant, unprecedented tax scandal in the world. and that is what you did. you went to the us treasury department, you performed what many of us believe was a national service by reporting this evidence of waste, fraud, abuse and illegality. but then the u. s. justice department came after you. how did that happen? what was going through your mind at the time? well, here's the problem. i think for most of your listeners, if they don't understand what's the point it's, it's a real education in what whistleblowers like yourself on went through. meaning you're trying to do the right thing when you see something wrong. i mean, that's a human trait. and essentially what i was trying to say was,
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i tried to fix the problem internally. i wasn't fired, i quit. and then i then continued it with the board of directors and then and so forth. so by going to my government, i think it will, law enforcement certainly going to be interested in this and so well the opposite was true. i was a little bit naive in that sense, meaning one, why didn't they uncover? where was the d o j for the last years? that's the 1st question. the 2nd question is, as a whistleblower, they can't take the credit. and the point being that maybe they want to still continue because some of their very rich donors, not just a d o j, but the administration at the time i would want wouldn't want their rich and powerful friends expose. and i'm thinking of myself, wait a minute, this is crazy. so you know, it's going on. here's a guy that comes in, it gives you the keys to the kingdom and you attack him. and so i 1st,
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i couldn't find a law firm in washington that wasn't conflict because you had them all over it. and the 2nd thing was i had to go with a 2nd rate firm. unfortunately, i didn't think the us was going to be my problem. i thought the swiss government or this was banks and even the us would be the problem. so that's really where the crux was and i came in in good faith to drive you the right thing and they kept yelling at me and they were hostile towards me at the very beginning. and i said, look, i can't give you names of clients until you give me a subpoena. so we're not going to give you immunity. i want to give you a subpoena. i said, well, you're not getting the names. and we are going to fisticuffs in d. headquarters, i'll never forget it. and what really made me wonder was i said now i'm really in this net deep, but i still, i held my ground as you know, i'm gonna hold firm on this. and ironically, later, once the investigations and so for started in senate and u. b. s is called to testify, they give the same answer. we can't give you the names until we change the laws in
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switzerland and parliament in zurich, shane law and order for them to give up the names of u. s. government. so what's different about what i said, these are the what they said, nothing same answer because you would go to jail for breaking bank secrecy where i live. so really what was going on here was the d o. j was furious and hate were support. they're very hostile towards them. we don't like them, they don't get the credit. as i said before, and i ultimately what us senate with a gave me a which gave me the ability to give up the names. so i met with the senate for 10 out. i met with the i arrest many hours, i met with the a c c, but the da hated, that's why they couldn't compartmentalize this year and they couldn't take credit. so what they do all the sco attacked this guy, make him the bad guy just like you don't make one guy. the bad guy, even though all these other bad actors are out there. my boss is able to for 1020 years and had been doing this and i was the one about the church come forward and
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say no, this is wrong. oh, that's really the essence of how the d o j. and as we even see today in washington, the d o j is infested with corrupt people who are incompetent and complicit and criminally involved. brad, what was the government's goal? do you think in going after you rather than the people who had actually been breaking the law and were any of the tax beaters ever prosecuted? yes, the taxes are, some of them were very few. and there's something called an offshore voluntary disclosure program. and with that, you're allowed to come in and come and honestly tell them about your account and pay, say 30 percent on the high watermark if your chance, let's just say to the 10 year period and it was $10000000.00. so you would say you're going to pay 30 percent on $10000000.00, even though today we will keep you anonymous. you won't go to jail in the store. but the problem was they wanted to send a message,
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all the 19000 millionaires and billionaires to come under that program because we got this bag. so you didn't get me. i came to you, you never hear a noise just so that's the real row. the 2nd thing here is some of the clients i gave to them, which they are not allowed to come on to the offshore voluntary disclosure program . people like leonard lauder, jack, nanny, kevin costner, all these people have never been prosecuted. why? so these people and many others were given the secret anonymity and be able to walk free because the deal just didn't want to give me credit for that. so you can see some loss for some people, some loss for others. it's a double system and it's as you seen today in washington, d. r j is to close it in criminality. so my whole point here was ok, you're going to make one guy, the bad guy, but yet you're not doing your job and indict 19000 people in the head of the iris
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state it in the u. s. and under oath that if we have name or an ongoing investigation, you're not allowed to come into the program. well, then indict them. how have your revelations change the banking industry? i imagine there have been big changes. well, quite frankly, unfortunately, the senate doesn't understand international finance and the laws, the passages that for instance was the disaster. it essentially was put in place because of me. and what happens with that is it just made foreign banks report back to united states, everything about an american plan, whether it's hong kong, south africa, switzerland or wherever. the problem here is so what i did was so unprecedented in historic, they change the treaties in switzerland. they changed the laws, they actually went to parliament and had to change the law, which broke bank secrecy. it's over. and then hillary clinton gotten bother
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secretary state, get that later where she was working on settling this case. but there's another was a war by the name of julian assange who came up with a very critical document which is on my website, lucifer's dot com. and that document was we can see a secret table which i showed you, john, you've seen it before. and this cable essentially said between hillary clinton, her counterpart in switzerland, 3 times in this memo, they said we need a political solution. yes, case. now nobody was ever supposed to see this document, but thanks to julian associates out there. but more importantly, what they did was the close down a small company operating in i ran out of switzerland and they took 2 chinese leaders from guantanamo bay and settled them in switzerland to settle the u. b. s. tack scandal. so what, what is the end result here? what's the message? 350000000 americans got screwed by the obama administration. it's
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a fact why because they allowed the system to be corrupted. so they could protector rich in a lead. france and this you some other smokescreen to settle this case and bury it under the rug. and that's why they put me in jail to try and shut me up. but the opposite happened, and i did, i wrote my book and did a website and i lecture and that's essentially what i'm trying to do, even with you now. all right, brad, hang right there. we'll be back with brad broke and fell right after the break. when we come back, we talked to brad burke and felt about how his attorney's continued to fight for him after he went to prison. you've been watching the whistle blowers. 2 2 2 2 2 ah, so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have. it's crazy confrontation, let it be an arms race is on,
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often very dramatic development. only personally, i'm going to resist. i don't see how that strategy will be successful, very critical time time to sit down and talk is your media a reflection of reality in the world transformed what will make you feel safer? isolation for community. are you going the right way? or are you being that some with what is true? what is great in the world corrupted, you need to descend so join us of the dells
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will remain in the shallows. 2 2 ah, i'm john, curiosity, and this is the whistleblowers. we've been talking with bradley burke and felt a long time banker and seasoned financial expert who brought down money laundering and income tax evasion. bradley burke and phelps story takes a very strange twist. we've already talked to him about his arrest and why he was arrested. he had gone to the treasury department to report evidence of illegality. and then the entire weight of the u. s. government seemed to fall on his head. why did that happen? well, thanks to wiki leaks, we now know why that happened. you see behind the scenes while brad was making his revelations to the u. s. department of the treasury, hillary clinton,
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when she was secretary of state, was active at the same time. the united states had several prisoners of weaker origin chinese muslims. they were housed at one tawna, mo, at the notorious u. s. prison camp there and they needed to be resettled. while the governments of albania and fiji agreed to take 2 weaker is each. there were still 2 that needed to find somewhere to go, and no country wanted them. so hillary clinton called the president of switzerland and said, we want you to take these 2 weeks hours. the president of switzerland said that the country was not interested in taking any wiggers or any other people from guantanamo. this discussion went back and forth for several months until finally hillary clinton sent a cable to the president of switzerland through the u. s. embassy in that country, and she said, we really want you to take these 2 weeks hours. the president of switzerland then came back and said,
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we'll take the 2 weeks. if you arrest bradley burke and felt to which hillary clinton said done. and that's exactly what happened, an order went from the state department, specifically from the office of the secretary of state, herself to the department of justice saying, arrest bradley burke and felt an american citizen and charged him with a crime. any crime. it doesn't matter what kind of crime, bradley berkin felt had brought down money laundering and tax evasion at every bank in switzerland. he was to pay for that with his own freedom. it wasn't because he had done anything wrong. in fact, he had done a great service for the u. s. government. it was because hillary clinton needed a favor and that favor was to take 2 chinese muslims and resettle them in switzerland. it's a sad story, but that's how the world works. and sometimes the little guy gets caught up in the, in the plans of the big guys. that's what happened in this case. bradley berkin
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felt last 3 years of his life to prison. and it was because hillary clinton wanted him to but don't worry, things got better. now we want to bring back bradley burke and fellow who is also the author of the book lucifer's banker, which is a memoir of his experiences being jailed for whistle blowing on some of the biggest banks in the world read when you were charged and convicted and sentenced to to prison. you didn't just sit back and take it. you went to prison. but your attorney's continued to fight for you. and they filed a whistle blower, reward claim on your behalf that ended up putting you in the guinness book of world records. how did that happen? well, that's correct, and a lot of people assume wrongly that i did this for the money and that's totally incorrect. when i 1st started was going back in 2005 and science and bank. the law hadn't been passed yet. so want to pass in december 2006 when i was long on the
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bank. so how can i have known that there was some law coming down later in the u. s . senate? so that's very important for your audience to understand. but what had happened was they said, you had given up so much information that the i arrest was from going office, felt compelled under law that i was entitled to an award by the unprecedented information which you can go on to my website and see the letter they wrote about it, they said the information i gave was so incredible. we never would have been able to one cover it and the prosecutor even sent it in from the judge. my sense it if i hadn't come into the d o j, this should still be going on. so why are you attacking me and putting me in jail? this was the rich and powerful a lead that got to the top people and the obama administration. obama himself era called the who represented u. b. s. in private practice and human clinton are donors protected, said make the sky pay. and so i saw the head right on the wall,
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but ultimately i got the largest possible and award. and for that, i was put in the guinness book of world records, which they had to create a whole new section under whistle going because of me, which i'm very proud of. brad over the past decade, you've helped a lot of whistleblowers to stay on their feet and you're always there to provide advice, encouragement, even legal referrals. i know that you're interested in a more formal way to help and to encourage whistleblowers. so tell us about your plans for the future. well, that's correct john i, i do go out of my way to help others because i know how difficult it is for me, harassment, intimidation, retaliation and so forth. and was of was had a lot of courage to come forward. and there's not many people supporting that you're on an island by yourself. and i think you know what exactly what, oh yes. you know this year, your fresh out of friends as we say, a whistle or, but what we need is, was the boys to make it a better society. and what i said to myself is my case was so historic. and if it
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transformed the trillion literally trillion dollar industry and we're still feeling the effects today with the d o j $5100.00 suspects. we brought back over 25000000000. ready dollars to the us treasury and back into america. and that money gets invested in tax perpetuity, which means it's multiples of billions that i have said us taxpayer and he was government. and so what i need to do is to get this message out to every person who will listen and who will be rational and to say, why don't you embrace this man? he is an extension of law enforcement. he had the courage to change such an industry, and this was overseas, this wasn't in america, this was overseas money that they could never get to. so now i help people, as you rightly say, when i get them. sometimes lawyers like financial support gets emotional support. i also won't get the media involved or i think it's necessary and this is what we
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tried to do. and ultimately i'll be open in our office in, in europe to help your p whistleblowers file claims in the united states that are us central. bradley bergen self thanks so much for joining us. that's all we have for you today. i'm john curio and this has been whistleblowers. 2 2 2 when i was a kid and engagement a trail, ah, when so many find themselves will depart. we choose to look for common
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ground. lou needs to come to russian state. i never. i've stayed on the northland scheme. divest a group in the 55 with ban in the european union, the kremlin media machine, the state on russia for date, and c, r t spoke neck, given our video agency, roughly all band on youtube. and pinterest and with
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ah, this, our month goes surely condemns a decision by the g 7 on the you to impose a price cap on russian oil export. well below the current market rate also threatening it would comply ordering the survey images. i had 3 people are killed in the clinic, military's latest. ok, so the shelling of residential neighborhoods in the city, the local officials say nathan shells were used in the attack. a new owner, a loss of bikes, claims of the previous management to the extraordinary service, to suppress information about u. s. president joe, by this controversial son hunter, i made pressure from the white house.
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