Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB), based in Vaduz, has agreed to pay US$23.8 million to US authorities in a deal that allowed it to avoid criminal prosecution for helping Americans dodge taxes on millions of dollars held in offshore accounts.
The US authorities had been investigating whether clients of LLB had violated US taxation law and securities regulations.
Go deeper with GlobalData
LLB, the US Department of Justice and the attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York have signed a non-prosecution agreement, which marks an end to the investigations into LLB.
As part of the agreement, LLB agreed to pay the gross profit of US$16.3 million it earned from 2001 to 2012 on transactions with undeclared assets held by US clients and to pay US$7.5 million to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for lost tax revenue during the same period.
In the non-prosecution agreement, the US authorities explicitly agreed not to impose a fine or penalty on LLB beyond the payments for gross profit and lost tax revenue.
US Attorney Preet Bharara said the non-prosecution agreement demonstrates the ‘unprecedented nature of the bank’s cooperation.
In 2008, LLB has voluntarily implemented a series of remedial measures to stop assisting undeclared US taxpayers in evading federal income taxes.
At the end of 2006, LLB held more than US$340 million of undeclared assets on behalf of US taxpayers in more than 900 accounts.
