The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has reached a resolution with Credit Agricole Suisse (CAS), Dreyfus Sons & Co and Baumann & Cie over the tax evasion cases under the department’s Swiss Bank Program.
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The three Swiss banks have collectively agreed to pay a penalty of more than $130m to the US to avoid prosecution over allegations accusing them of helping Americans evade taxes.
The $130m sum penalty includes $99.2m from the Zurich-based unit of Crédit Agricole as well as a $24.2m from Dreyfus and $7.7m from Baumann & Cie, Banquiers, both in Basel, Switzerland.
As per the terms of the non-prosecution deal, the banks have agreed to cooperate in any related criminal or civil proceedings and demonstrate implementation of controls to prevent misconduct.
The US DoJ in a statement said that Credit Agricole Suisse maintained about 954 legal and illegal bank accounts with an aggregate value of $1.8bn since 2008.
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By GlobalDataCAS provided few clients with access to its then wholly-owned subsidiary Crédit Agricole Suisse Conseil (CASC), which provided services that included international estate and tax planning, as well as the establishment and administration of non US entities.
The bank helped some US taxpayers to fully deplete assets from accounts that they concealed from the IRS by making multiple cash withdrawals or reloading pre-paid cash cards or bank checks.
According to the Justice Department, Dreyfus & Sons held 855 US related accounts with a combined value of $1.76bn, while Baumann maintained 167 US accounts valued at $514m.
Both the banks were involved in practises such as creating overseas organizations, including in Panama, to hold client funds and hide the owners’ true details from US tax authorities.
Dreyfus also opened and maintained at least 34 USD related accounts for domiciliary entities created in foreign countries including the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Nevis and Switzerland.
Private bank Baumann opened US related accounts for non US structures, such as offshore corporations or trusts.
The bank also offered several traditional Swiss banking services to hide assets and also opened numbered accounts and held bank statements and other mail relating to some US related accounts at Baumann’s offices in Switzerland.
