The Justice Department said Swiss bank UBS has “systematically and deliberately” violated U.S. law by dispatching private bankers to recruit wealthy Americans in evading taxes and must reveal the identities of 52,000 of those clients, reports The Associated Press.
The filing asks U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold to hold UBS accountable for conducting years of illegal business in the U.S. Such business earned the bank more than $100 million in fees but the U.S. did not receive hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.
“It is time for UBS to face the consequences that it has brought upon itself,” said Justice Department tax attorney Stuart Gibson in the 55-page filing. “The United States has proven its case for enforcement.”
UBS spokesperson Karina Byrne said the bank is “open to an appropriate solution.”
The Internal Revenue Services summons seeks the identities of all U.S. taxpayers who had an “undeclared” account at UBS between 2002 and 2007. UBS wrote to its U.S.-based clients in March and April telling them to close their accounts within weeks and transfer any money to a specially created U.S. unit, to another bank, or to withdraw the funds. That grace period ends July 2.
UBS previously received a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department in which is agreed to disclose the identities of up to 300 U.S. clients and pay $780 million to the U.S. government.
Accountant Steven Michael Rubinstein, one of the 300 clients, plead guilty last week in Fort Lauderdale federal court to charges of filing a false tax return and faces up to three years in prison.