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In Wake of UBS Tax Deal, Other Countries Seek Secret Swiss Bank Data
By Brian Monroe
printAs many as a dozen countries are expected to press UBS AG for information on tax evaders following the bank's settlement last week with the United States, say tax analysts. France, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries are currently negotiating with the Swiss government to get any data on hidden assets, whether at UBS or other banks, according to an Aug. 21 statement by the Swiss Finance Ministry. The discussions follow an Aug. 19 settlement that allowed U.S. investigators to obtain the names of 4,450 UBS account holders suspected of tax evasion. Tax authorities in the nations believe that...
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With new international data-exchange agreements in place, the United Kingdom will soon have greater access than ever to information on tax dodgers with offshore accounts, according to the nation's Financial Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke.
Hundreds of Swiss bankers are suing to stop their old employers from turning over to the United States details of their interactions with suspected American tax evaders, according to a tax attorney.
A U.S.-Swiss plan to resolve a tax evasion dispute may absolve Switzerland's government from further action but will prove costly and time-consuming for participating banks, say attorneys.
In his 12-year career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Daniel W. Levy has investigated and prosecuted several banks, bankers, and financial services advisors that facilitated the evasion of U.S. taxes through the use of complicit offshore financial institutions.
An expected plan to resolve a U.S.-Swiss tax dispute will likely prompt a wave of disclosures by American taxpayers and clear the way for banks to turn over data on their employees.
Liechtenstein's oldest bank will pay nearly $24 million to the United States for aiding American tax evaders for at least a decade, the Southern District of New York disclosed Tuesday.
Switzerland's virtually unregulated commodities market can be vulnerable to criminal tax evasion, money laundering and other financial crimes, all without the banks involved ever knowing, according to Andreas Missbach, the joint managing director of The Berne Declaration.
A federal court Monday dismissed criminal charges against UBS AG after determining that the Swiss banking giant fulfilled its obligations under a high-profile deal made with U.S. authorities in August 2009.
U.S. investigators are increasingly relying on suspicious activity reports filed by depository institutions in their efforts to find tax evaders who hide their assets in foreign bank accounts.
Switzerland will begin disclosing account data on nearly 4,000 UBS AG clients within a week after Swiss lawmakers Thursday approved the handover, marking an unprecedented exception to the country's bank secrecy laws.
A decision by Swiss lawmakers to block a deal allowing UBS AG to turn over client data to the United States has left supporters of the agreement scrambling to find an alternative.
Lawmakers proposed a measure Wednesday that would potentially prohibit banks from processing credit card transactions for merchants and maintaining correspondent accounts for financial institutions deemed vulnerable to money laundering and tax evasion.
An influential international anti-money laundering group may request that its members pass legislation tying tax evasion to money laundering as part of an effort to to pierce Swiss bank secrecy.
A Swiss proposal of how to circumvent a court ruling that blocked an August data exchange agreement may leave U.S. investigators with fewer names of suspected tax cheats than expected.
International efforts to crack down on bank secrecy abuse remain stymied, with few tax evaders opting to move their money out of traditional European and offshore tax havens, according to analysts.
A new IRS division focusing on recovering lost tax revenue from the ultra-wealthy has begun auditing individuals, according to a corporate tax attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm.
Many tax havens have done the bare minimum to remove themselves from an intergovernmental group's list of regulatory-lax jurisdictions, at times only signing tax treaties with other bank secrecy countries.
It is an exciting time for IRS investigators who are now able to examine the UBS AG accounts of over 4,500 U.S. citizens suspected of hiding assets offshore, according to John Everett, a licensed criminal investigator and certified fraud examiner based in Agoura Hills, California.
The U.S. Justice Department settlement with one of Switzerland's largest banks that requires the bank to divulge the names of thousands of suspected tax evaders could provide just one more trail leading investigators to financial institutions in Asia.