Whistleblower who claims to campaign for whistleblowers rings to say: “I will be suing you for defamation”

Bradley Birkenfeld, who was imprisoned for three years and four months in the United States of America for helping Russian-born, California-based real estate mogul Igor Olenicoff to hide his assets from the US authorities and evade taxes, has just rung me this minute to say: “I will be suing you for defamation.” He immediately rang off, even as I pointed out that all the information reported in my piece of this afternoon had previously been reported in The New York Times and other influential US newspapers, with the exception of the information about his move to Malta, which he himself gave me in response to my questions this morning.

It’s interesting to see that my first instincts about the man have turned out to be correct, but I won’t elaborate on that.

Suffice it to say that despite all his bluff, bluster and posturing about campaigning for whistleblowers, when a journalist in the country which he has made his home after the US authorities allowed him to leave, writes a factual piece informing people about him, he goes ballistic and begins issuing threats of law-suits.

Looks like he’s another of those characters who congregate in Malta because he thinks the natives are easily impressed by money and big talk (true), and who then goes nuts because one of them very publicly is not.

It’s only the shady people who sue me or threaten to sue me: fascinating.

Convicted US felon Bradley Birkenfeld, who was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for helping a Russian-born, California-based real estate developer evade taxes on $200m of assets, and for whom he bought diamonds and smuggled them across the Atlantic in a toothpaste tube.