Swiss banking giant UBS has confirmed that it is being investigated by the US authorities for helping rich Americans evade taxes through investments banned in the US.
The Swiss bank said: "In January 2015, we received inquiries from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are investigating potential sales to U.S. persons of bearer bonds and other unregistered securities.
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"We are cooperating with the authorities in these investigations.
"Our balance sheet at 31 December 2014 reflected provisions with respect to matters described in this item 1 in an amount that UBS believes to be appropriate under the applicable accounting standard. As in the case of other matters for which we have established provisions, the future outflow of resources in respect of such matters cannot be determined with certainty based on currently available information, and accordingly may ultimately prove to be substantially greater (or may be less) than the provision that we have recognized," the statement added.
UBS said it made CHF963m ($1.04bn) in the quarter, up from CHF917m in the year ago quarter.
The fresh US probe centres around the UBS selling ‘bearer bonds,’ which enable investors to transfer ownership without registering who is in possession of these products when the process is done.
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