UBS Loses Bid to Cut $1.4 Billion Bail in French Tax Case
(Bloomberg) — UBS Group AG lost its bid to reduce a 1.1 billion-euro ($1.4 billion) bail payment required of Switzerland’s biggest bank in a French tax-evasion case, Switzerland’s 20Minutes reported, citing Agence France-Presse.
The Court of Cassation in Paris upheld the sum today, paid in September after UBS lost an initial appeal. Prosecutors charged the bank in July with laundering proceeds of tax fraud. Judges estimated the bank helped French taxpayers hide about 9.8 billion euros.
UBS is disappointed by the decision and intends to appeal and challenge the judicial process including the right to a fair trial with the European Court of Human Rights, the bank said in an e-mailed statement. “The basis for calculating the bail amount is exaggerated, speculative and not based on facts.”
The bail demanded from the Zurich-based bank in July was a record in such a case for France.
A court prosecutor said yesterday it was proportionate to UBS’s assets and the type of wrongdoing, even if unprecedented in the country.
The court will formally publish its decision tomorrow, an official said today. 20Minutes cited a person close to the matter when it reported the decision against UBS.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeffrey Vögeli in Zurich at jvogeli@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elisa Martinuzzi at emartinuzzi@bloomberg.net Frank Connelly, James Kraus
