UBS agrees to name 4,450 wealthy clients

MIAMI, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- UBS has agreed to reveal names of 4,450 wealthy U.S. clients suspected of hiding $18 billion in assets in the Swiss bank, the U.S. Justice Department said.

The department suspects 52,000 accounts at the Swiss bank are hiding assets from the Internal Revenue Service, but IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said Wednesday "these are the accounts we most wanted," The New York Times reported.

Publicity has prompted others to step forward. With the new names "more than 10,000" accounts hiding assets will be disclosed, Shulman said.

U.S. prosecutors who won a $780 million fine from UBS said they would ask that the whistle blower in the tax fraud case be sent to jail.

At a Friday hearing, prosecutors will ask Judge William Zloch to sentence Bradley Birkenfeld to 30 months in prison, The Miami Herald reported.

Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government in June 2008 for helping billionaire Igor Olenicoff hide $200 million from the IRS.

Prosecutors said Birkenfeld initially failed to inform authorities of his dealings with Olenicoff, who was once listed on the Forbes list of America's wealthiest citizens.

Birkenfeld's attorneys are pushing for probation on the grounds that Birkenfeld was cooperating with authorities even before his arrest.