Washington – More than 150 UBS AG clients in the U.S. are under investigation for concealing income and assets offshore at the bank, a prosecutor said in a court filing.
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The scope of the investigation was disclosed today in a memo recommending that former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld serve 30 months in prison for conspiring to help wealthy Americans evade taxes. Birkenfeld, who faces as long as five years, will be sentenced Aug. 21 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Birkenfeld, 44, pleaded guilty in June 2008 to conspiracy, saying he helped U.S. clients evade taxes through Zurich-based UBS. He seeks leniency for helping a worldwide tax-fraud probe. UBS agreed Feb. 18 to pay $780 million to avoid prosecution for helping wealthy Americans evade taxes. The bank gave account data on 250 clients to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
“Ultimately, based upon information obtained from UBS as part of the deferred-prosecution agreement, the United States is criminally investigating more than 150 Americans across the country who are believed to have concealed income and assets at UBS, in violation of United States law,” acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman said in the filing.
Three UBS clients pleaded guilty since the agreement to filing false tax returns, and a fourth was charged last week with failing to file a tax report for an offshore account.
“Birkenfeld has provided substantial assistance in the investigation and prosecution of others who have committed offenses,” Sloman wrote. “This substantial assistance has been timely, significant, useful, truthful, complete, and reliable.”
On Feb. 19, the IRS sued UBS in federal court in Miami, seeking the names of Americans suspected of evading taxes through 52,000 secret Swiss accounts. On Aug. 12, a Justice Department lawyer told the judge in the case that the two sides had reached a settlement.
Birkenfeld was arrested on May 7, 2008, after flying into Boston to attend his high school reunion.
Say good bye to ubs they’ll have no worth for business but america you became a communist country. good luck to you all.
Say good bye to ubs bank they have betrayed human privacy. And hello to communist america you’ll soon join the ranks of all your predecessors.
i wonder if the antisemitic swiss gave 149 Jewish names and 1 non-Jewish name just for good measure.
why do you keep accusing the US of communism, at least on this issue. These people have hidden their assets and income away from the US gov’t, thus depriving all US citizens of services the gov’t provides; at the very least, our deficit and national debt would be smaller today if these people paid their fair share like you and me. These people are and have been evading taxes thru their use of Swiss bank accounts; if they reported their income on it, they have nothing to fear but in reality they have made use of tax shelters that are illegal, used shell companies to obscure their tracks and are now coming forward in droves to pay up so that they can avoid jail time and possibly reduce penalties on all their misbegotten thievery. Why are you sympathetic to them?
i laugh at the people who are all so self-righteous about paying taxes. why do people see it wrong for people to avoid paying massive “penalty” taxes for being rich, while others refuse to work and freeload off the government and that IS perfectly legal.
it’s amazing what society has come to….
if tax were fair all-around for ALL that’s one thing, but when people are punished for earning more it’s sick. let’s not forget the massive corporations who somehow manage to totally avoid paying taxes by using every trick in the book
Personal income taxes are unconstitutional. PERIOD! Just because the sheeple have been programmed to believe that the government can do whatever they want, doesn’t mean that we have to listen.
Before anybody replies to this comment, please watch “America: Freedom to Fascism.” Otherwise, you don’t stand a fighting chance.
this looks and smells very no good l”aln
this looks and smells very no good l”aln
As a law-abiding accountant, I notice that only the rich pay taxes. Those of us who are wage earners don’t really pay much at all in comparison. It takes great efforts to ensure that wealthy clients are paying the minimum that is legally allowed, and still they pay exorbitant amounts in excess of 70% if you include sales tax, property taxes and and it rises to 85% when the ‘death tax’ is included on the remaining amounts. These are the people who employ us, is it really good for our economy to do this? Does our government really need this much money, or are we simply bleeding those who are clever enough to make a decent living?