Ex-UBS Banker Gives Florida Jury Primer on Swiss Bank Secrecy

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) — A former UBS AG banker under U.S. indictment gave a primer on the workings of Swiss bank secrecy to a Florida jury hearing the tax-conspiracy trial of Raoul Weil, who once ran the bank’s global wealth-management business.

Hansruedi Schumacher told Fort Lauderdale jurors today that he oversaw UBS accounts for about 15,000 U.S. clients in 1999, and most were structured to cheat the Internal Revenue Service. Clients shunned calls or account statements from their Swiss bankers, preferring personal visits, usually in hotels, he said. Bankers often changed hotels to avoid suspicion from the staff.

“We knew from the way the accounts were set up that the majority of these 15,000 clients were cheating on the taxes,” said Schumacher, the first witness at a trial that began yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Voreacos in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, at [e-mail]

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