Reportedly, Swiss bank UBS (NYSE: UBS) "systemically and deliberately" violated U.S. law by dispatching private bankers in America to recruit citizens interested in evading taxes.
UBS is now being forced by the Justice Department to reveal the identities of the 52,000 clients. This filing asks that the U.S. District Judge (Alan S. Gold) hold UBS accountable for conducting years of illegal business in the U.S. This business reportedly earned UBS more than $100 million in fees, while costing the U.S. "hundreds of millions" of dollars in unpaid taxes.
Stuart Gibson, tax attorney for the Justice Department, stated, "It is time for UBS to face the consequences that it has brought upon itself." It's nice to see that the United States is gunning for blood when it's tax money that has been taken, but couldn't care less when Stanford and Madoff swindle innocent, hard-working Americans out of their money (not as much Madoff, he is going to jail for a long time). Where is the $500,000 bail for UBS like it was for Stanford? When the government gets shafted, they want retribution -- where is the retribution for the poor people scammed by others?
Supposedly, UBS told its U.S.-based clients to close their accounts in March and April and to transfer any money to a specially created U.S. unit, to another bank, or to simply withdraw the funds. Something is definitely rotten in Denmark here, or Sweden -- wherever UBS is located.
That said, I don't want to participate in what some have said is irresponsible journalism and suggest an appropriate punishment. I just know that UBS certainly doesn't appear to have dealt with things above board as far as U.S. laws are concerned, and the government is after its money. This situation definitely warrants monitoring, as it could impact the way overseas banks and the U.S. government interact in the future.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-01-2009 @ 10:19AM
Dan Barnett said...
Mark,
I really don't know where you are going with this. Do you mean to urge that the corporate officers of the Swiss Company (Switzerland, the little one in the middle, Heidi, chocolate, yodeling) be imprisoned?
Madoff and others (after conviction) have defrauded people. The Swiss Bank who points out that "secret Swiss bank accounts" are secret from the IRS is hardly in the same league. But you mention that UBS is being held accountable. So where's the problem?
The real criminals are, IMHO, the US citizens who utilized the Swiss bank's secrecy to defraud the US of the tax money owed. That will be fun to watch.
7-03-2009 @ 12:01AM
anon said...
Funny that UBS has a bank chartered in the USA (http://bankusa.ubs.com/) and run according to US laws with FDIC protection for deposits
and yet seem to be draining / directing wealthier clients to their private off-shore swiss based bank.