The United States has indicted an ex-UBS banker for providing offshore tax-evasion services to rich Americans.
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On Tuesday, Martin Lack was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the US. The Swiss national had headed UBS’s North American business targeted at wealthy clients until 2003.
Tax authorities estimate that Swiss banks helped Americans hide billions in undeclared offshore accounts.
Meanwhile, a US Justice Department investigation has Credit Suisse in its sights. Several of its bankers have been indicted, and US officials sent a letter last month to inform the bank that it was under criminal scrutiny.
UBS avoided indictment in 2009 by agreeing to pay a fine of $780 million ($600 million) as well as admitting wrongdoing and providing a list of client names.
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Credit Suisse in sights of US tax probe
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Investigators have now escalated the probe and are attempting to implicate the bank in hiding some $3 billion (SFr2.46 billion) of client assets from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). They must prove that the bank’s hierarchy sanctioned staff actions before client data can be demanded in a re-run of the UBS case two years ago.…
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Rumours are circulating that Swiss and European banks will be invited to join a voluntary disclosure scheme that would inflict fines and the handover of client data in return for the US authorities dropping legal action. The US tax collection agency, the Internal revenue Service (IRS), scored a direct hit on UBS two years ago…
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The renewed offensive by the US tax authorities has alarmed the Swiss banking community, sparking fears of a second assault on banking secrecy and rumours regarding which banks may be next to face the music. One bank that has suffered from adverse conditions in the US is the Neue Zürcher Bank (NZB), that closed down…
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Over the past few years, UBS has garnered a lot of negative press. Extraordinary general assemblies and public protests have been occuring with increasing frequency.
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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.