UBS client gets one year prison sentence
A United States citizen has been sentenced to a year in prison for having hidden $8.8 million (SFr 8.89 million) in a Swiss bank account.
The US Department of Justice said on Friday that this was the longest prison sentence to be handed down for using a “secret” UBS account in Switzerland.
The offender is part of a group of seven tax-dodgers who pleaded guilty of tax evasion in Switzerland in April.
The man, a New York financial advisor, was also sentenced to six months of home confinement and given a $4.4 million fine for hiding the money.
In August 2009, the Swiss and US governments agreed to a deal which stated that confidential details of 4,450 UBS clients suspected of tax offences would be handed over to US tax authorities. Switzerland had a year to comply.
A Swiss Federal Administrative Court ruled in January 2010 that the handover of data was illegal, leaving the deal in doubt. But in June it gained the backing of the Swiss parliament.
Client data in about half the cases has already been supplied to the US, and the remainder is due to be handed over by autumn.
swissinfo.ch and agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
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.