US authorities have charged four bankers with
conspiring to help US clients evade paying US taxes by hiding money
in secret Swiss accounts.
The US Justice Department (DOJ) and the
Internal Revenue Service named the four bankers as Marco Parenti
Adami, Emanuel Agustoni, Michele Bergantino and Roger Schaerer.
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The US Department of Justice did not confirm
which bank the four worked for but said it was an international
bank with its headquarters in Zurich. Media reports claim the bank
is Credit Suisse.
Credit Suisse told PBI it was
co-operating with US authorities in their investigation against the
four individuals, adding Credit Suisse was not a target of the
investigation.
The indictment follows UBS’s high-profile
wrangle with US authorities over the names of 4,450 US client
accounts which was concluded late last year.
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By GlobalData“Thousands” of secret tax-evading
accounts
The indictment alleged the bank maintained
thousands of secret accounts for US high net worth individuals with
as much as $3bn in total assets under management in those
accounts.
“The conspiracy dates back to 1953 and involved two generations
of US tax evaders, including US customers who inherited secret
accounts at the international bank,” the Department of Justice said
in a statement.
Bank officials “knew and should have known that they were aiding
and abetting US customers in evading their US income taxes,” the
indictment alleged.
Illegal wealth transfers to continue tax
fraud
After the bank decided to close the secret
accounts, the defendants encouraged and assisted the customers to
transfer their secret accounts to other banks in Switzerland and
Hong Kong to continue to hide their assets from the IRS, the
indictment alleged.
It is further alleged in the indictment that
Agustino left the international bank and continued the tax fraud
scheme at two other private Swiss banks.
According to the DOJ statement, the defendants
each face a maximum of five years in prison and a maximum fine of
$250,000 if convicted.
