As a private banker at Swiss banking giant UBS, Bradley Birkenfeld was hip high in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to help wealthy Americans dodge income taxes through secret accounts at Switzerland's largest bank.

But when the 44-year-old American blew the whistle on UBS, he laid the foundation for the federal government's most devastating assault ever on Swiss banking secrecy and offshore tax cheats.

Federal prosecutors disclosed in court papers Tuesday that ``more than 150 Americans across the country'' are under criminal investigation for hiding income at UBS, based on records UBS released to avoid criminal charges.

As valuable witnesses go, Birkenfeld takes the cake. At a sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch Friday, assistant U.S. attorney Jeffrey A. Neiman will recommend that Birkenfeld get 30 months in prison for his conviction on one count of conspiracy to defraud the government -- down from the 60-month maximum sentence he is exposed to -- because of his extensive cooperation.

Zloch has delayed Birkenfeld's sentencing four times at the request of prosecutors who are continuing to debrief him, but last week turned down a fifth request.

Birkenfeld, the son of a Boston neurosurgeon, had achieved an enviable lifestyle at UBS. As a private banker, the tall and athletic bon vivant, who sometimes sports a goatee, jetted across the Atlantic and kept an Alpine chalet overlooking the Matterhorn.

He was one of about 50 UBS private bankers catering to U.S. clients. His special services to rich Americans who wanted to hide money in secret offshore accounts once included slipping through U.S. Customs carrying diamonds stuffed inside a toothpaste tube.

Birkenfeld might have escaped prosecution or obtained a government recommendation for lighter punishment, but for one black mark: When he began cooperating with U.S. authorities, he initially kept mum about his own involvement in the scheme, prosecutors said in court papers Tuesday.

His case confronts prosecutors with the dilemma of wanting to encourage whistle-blowers to step forward, but needing to send the message that they should be truthful when they do so.

Birkenfeld's attorney asserts he should get probation. Court papers filed by defense attorney David E. Meier of Todd & Weld Tuesday said that Birkenfeld was already cooperating extensively with U.S. prosecutors and other U.S. authorities when he was arrested upon arriving at Boston airport from Switzerland in May 2008.

Birkenfeld had flown to the United States for scheduled meetings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Senate, whom he was cooperating with, his court papers said.

But in spilling the beans, Birkenfeld failed to mention his most prominent client, Lighthouse Point billionaire Igor Olenicoff, who had already attracted scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service independently of Birkenfeld.

Olenicoff, a real estate developer who was once was on Forbes' list of richest Americans, eventually pleaded guilty and paid a large fine.

In June 2008, Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to conspiring to help Olenicoff evade $7.2 million in taxes by helping him conceal $200 million and continued his cooperation with authorities. He has remained free on bond, with an electronic ankle bracelet and a curfew.

Based in part on damning information Birkenfeld provided to federal prosecutors, UBS wound up paying a $780-million fine to the United States as part of a deferred prosecution agreement in February that allowed the bank to avoid criminal charges. It agreed to shut down its cross border business of providing secret bank accounts to wealthy Americans.

The bank also provided the IRS with information on about 250 to 300 U.S. customers with Swiss accounts -- information that federal prosecutors said Tuesday has triggered criminal investigations of more than 150 Americans suspected of illegally concealing income. Three UBS customers have already pleaded guilty to charges of filing false tax returns and a fourth is set to plead guilty to failing to disclose an offshore bank account.

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