CRMJ 415 All Assignments CRMJ 415 All Assignments | Page 13

practices. With Birkenfeld’s assistance U.S. investigators uncovered $20 billion in taxpayer
assets hidden overseas and federal criminal charges were brought against UBS. UBS pleaded
guilty to its role in the tax evasion scheme, paid a $780 million dollar fine and was forced to
reveal the names of 4,450 American clients to the Justice Department; less than 25 percent of
the 19,000 American accounts the bank admitted to keeping secret from U.S. tax officials.
Even though, as officials admit, the massive fraud would not have come to light without him,
Birkenfeld did not fully disclose his own complicity in the tax evasion scheme when he first
contacted American officials. His reward for blowing the whistle was a criminal indictment and
nearly three years in federal prison. The bank meanwhile bought its way out of the scandal,
which reached as far as the Whitehouse: UBS donated $540,000 to President Obama’s
presidential campaign and Attorney General Eric Holder had to recuse himself from the case
because he once served as a lawyer for the Swiss bank. As the Daily News observed, the
Birkenfeld case exposed a lot more than just hidden bank accounts.
Assignment: Analyze this case using course concepts we have studied so far. Write an essay
that answers these three question: how deviance occurred, what kind(s) of deviance occurred
and at least one theoretical perspective that you think has good explanatory power with
respect to this case.
If you use the text or external resources remember to use APA citations in the body of your
essay and in the corresponding References Cited section at the end of the essay. Reminder:
you cannot use Wikipedia or the websites of other universities;
Create a Microsoft Word document, using double-spacing, paragraphs and subheadings for
each component;
There is no set length for your essay although 750 words or more will probably be needed to
provide sound analysis;
Carefully edit your essay for grammar and spelling errors and for presentation style.
This assignment is due by one minute before midnight on the last Sunday of Week 5. Please
submit it through the Week 5 drop box.
Grading:
Quality of analysis (use of course concepts and reasoning)
35 points
Quality of editing (APA citations, free from spelling, grammar errors) 6 points
Quality of presentation (subheadings and paragraphing)