ABA Webcast on streamlined part II

There seems to be two important points that are being overlooked as to why obtaining a Pre-Clearance is important:
1. My understanding is that to do a Voluntary Disclosure you have to inform the IRS of your decision to want to become compliant before the IRS receives information that would have led them to you. By obtaining a Pre-Clearance you put a tourniquet on the non-compliance and stop the bleeding. You provide a date after which if the IRS receives information, that information can't be used to keep you out of the OVDP. A few years ago I had a client that was initially denied entry into the program but was later allowed into the OVDP because my Pre-Clearance was earlier by a day or so of the IRS obtaining information about the client. I was surprised that Jeff Neiman didn't comment on this a little more at the Webinar. When he was an AUSA in Florida and prosecuting the UBS cases he obtained the names of about 280 persons with accounts at UBS on February 18, 2009. Once those names were obtained, if those people applied to the OVDP, they were rejected and often prosecuted. Being on the audit list is not the only way your Pre-Clearance can be denied.
2. Clients, especially the new ones, are never "non-willful" in their eyes. Almost all "new" clients want to go Streamline because of the reduced penalty. By doing the Pre-Clearance you obtain some breathing room, like the automatic stay in bankruptcy, to discuss with the client how "non-willful" the client is. You also have time to investigate the client's circumstances. In many cases, clients, when presented with incidents of their willfulness, change their mind and go into the OVDP. It usually happens after you present them with a tax return organizer sent by their CPA where the client claims in the organizer that they don't have a foreign bank account. Later, when you speak to their CPA, he tells you that they were also asked by the CPA about a foreign bank account and your client always said "no".
I think that it is very risky not to do a Pre-Clearance.