A crackdown started in 2007 by the US authorities on the Swiss banks lead to the indictment of a number of Swiss bankers and now a possible indictment against Switzerland’s oldest bank on similar grounds seems to be on the horizon.
The bank is seeking a deferred prosecution agreement, which would be less damaging, but the outcome depends on the prosecutors, the US State Department and the US Treasury Department, and how they treat the matter.
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This news comes in the wake of last week’s news that three Swiss bankers working for Wegelin were charged in a New York indictment of helping clients to hide more than US$1.2 billion of taxpayer assets from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Along with Wegelin, there are 11 other banks facing charges under the same investigation, including Credit Suisse and UBS.
In what some see as an attempt to save the reputation of the country’s venerable private banks, the Swiss government is trying to negotiate with the IRS for a civil settlement for more than 300 other Swiss banks.
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By GlobalData
