US whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld cost his former employer UBS $780 million when he revealed how the Swiss bank was helping its rich clients evade tax. 

For his troubles, he ended up being sentenced to 40 months in jail. But the former banker had the last laugh, when he cashed in a record whistleblower reward cheque for $104 million. 

In this Times Talk interview, Mr Birkenfeld tells senior journalist Bertrand Borg that people who expose large-scale corruption must be financially compensated - not just to make up for the personal repercussions they face, but also because their revelations return huge sums to public coffers. 

The former UBS director, whose book Lucifer's Banker tells the tale of how he shook Swiss banking secrecy to its core, says he would be happy to meet with Maltese MPs and help them find ways of improving local whistleblower laws.  

Watch the full Times Talk interview in the video above. 

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