The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has reached a resolution with Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (Suisse) (BIL Switzerland) and Zuger Kantonalbank (ZGKB) over the tax evasion cases under the department’s Swiss Bank Program.
The two Swiss banks have agreed to pay a combined $13m in penalty to the US.
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BIL Switzerland will pay $9.7m and ZGKB will pay $3.79m in penalties to the US to avoid prosecution over allegations accusing them of helping Americans evade taxes.
Under the terms of the non-prosecution deal, the banks have agreed to cooperate in any related criminal or civil proceedings and demonstrate its implementation of controls to prevent misconduct involving undeclared US accounts and pay penalties.
The DoJ said that Swiss private bank BIL Switzerland maintained 267 US related accounts with an aggregate value of $182m since 1 August 2008.
The bank offered traditional Swiss banking services including hold mail and numbered accounts that helped US clients in hiding assets from IRS and also provided Swiss travel cash cards to US clients, allowing them to access and spend funds from undeclared accounts in the US.
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By GlobalDataZGKB maintained and serviced 434 US related accounts with an aggregate maximum value of $220m since 1 August 2008.
The bank offered Swiss banking services such as hold mail and numbered accounts and also accepted funds from a small number of UBS accountholders who were forced to close their UBS accounts due to a US tax-fraud investigation of UBS. It also issued checks drawn on a ZGKB account at a bank in New York.
IRS large business & international division acting deputy commissioner international David Horton said: "Today’s resolutions with Banque Internationale á Luxembourg (Suisse) SA and Zuger Kantonalbank under the Swiss Bank Program send a clear message.
""U.S. taxpayers cannot evade their taxes by setting up undisclosed offshore accounts. In partnership with the Department of Justice, we will continue our successful efforts to track these taxpayers and their hidden accounts down."
