Ex-banker heads to Florida to testify in Weil case
A former top executive at Neue Zürcher Bank (NZB) has turned himself over to the United States justice authorities and may testify in the trial of ex-UBS banker Raoul Weil next week, according to media reports.
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Swiss public radio, RTS, said on Wednesday that the ex-NZB executive is set to appear in court in the Weil case in Florida on Tuesday. He remains a free man but had to pay $500,000 (CHF480,000) bail, surrender his passport and inform the US authorities of his movements. He had also worked for UBS in the past.
NZB went bankrupt in 2012, three years after being indicted by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for helping US citizens evade taxes.
Weil is also suspected of having helped thousands of Americans evade taxes through his work at UBS. The 54-year-old Swiss citizen was arrested in Italy a year ago and was extradited to the US. He was indicted in 2008 and was on the run from US justice after being labelled a fugitive by a Florida court a year later.
Weil’s indictment accuses him of playing a prominent role in helping UBS’s US clients hide around $20 billion in undeclared assets between 2002 and 2007.
His trial is set to begin on Tuesday. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
The former head of global wealth management at UBS is the highest ranking Swiss banking executive to face trial on US soil.
UBS was fined $780 million in 2009 having admitted to helping US clients evade taxes. The bank’s capitulation signalled the beginning of the end of Swiss banking secrecy.
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US senators: extradite Swiss bankers
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In a letter published on Tuesday to Deputy Attorney General James Cole (see attachment), Levin and McCain wrote that the department should “at least attempt to use” powers under an extradition treaty with the Swiss. Levin, a Michigan Democrat, and McCain, an Arizona Republican, lead the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which issued a report…
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Weil, a 54-year-old Swiss citizen and former head of global wealth management at UBS, was charged five years ago with helping about 17,000 Americans conceal $20 billion (CHF18.1 billion) in secret accounts at the bank. He was a fugitive until his arrest last October in Italy and was later extradited to the US. He is…
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Weil, a 54-year-old Swiss citizen, was arrested in Italy in October. The Florida court indictment accuses him of playing a prominent role in helping UBS’s US clients hide around $20 billion in undeclared assets between 2002 and 2007. Weil appeared in shackles in federal court on Monday, three days after he was extradited from Italy.…
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Weil has been held in an Italian jail for over five weeks after police arrested him in Bologna where he was holidaying with his wife. The 54-year-old Swiss citizen parted company with Switzerland’s largest bank in 2009 after being declared a fugitive by the US courts for failing to respond to a criminal indictment issued…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.