Piguet Galland & Cie, a Swiss-based subsidiary of Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV), has reached resolution with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) over the tax evasion cases under the department’s Swiss bank programme.
The bank has agreed to pay a penalty of $15.36m to the US to avoid prosecution over allegations that it helped US citizens avoid paying taxes.
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Under the terms of the non-prosecution deal, Piguet Galland has agreed to cooperate in any related criminal or civil proceedings, demonstrate its implementation of controls to prevent misconduct involving undeclared US accounts and pay penalties.
The US DoJ in a statement said that Piguet Galland and its predecessor banks held a total of 337 US related accounts with approximately $441m in assets under management.
Piguet Galland was established through the combination of three small, traditional Swiss private banks focused on wealth management. In 2011, BCV purchased Franck Galland and later then merged it with its subsidiary Banque Piguet to form the current entity, Piguet Galland.
The bank and its predecessor banks opened, serviced and profited from accounts for US taxpayers and also offered several Swiss banking services that helped US clients hide assets from the IRS including hold mail and code name or numbered account services.
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By GlobalDataThe department added one relationship manager at the bank managed at least 65 US accounts, and travelled regularly to the US to meet existing and potential clients in five different states.
Also, Franck Galland has permitted two other former relationship managers to travel to the US to meet with US taxpayer clients. Franck Galland’s Cayman Islands entity also helped the firm in opening of undeclared US related accounts.
The bank also owned a condominium in the Cayman Islands that was used by executives of Franck Galland and at least three of its US taxpayer clients.
