On Friday a Swiss court ruled that authorities in that country cannot disclose information about an account belonging to a wealthy American who used UBS private banking services to evade U.S. taxes. The decision creates a new challenge for federal prosecutors trying to track down UBS clients who allegedly used tax shelters to avoid paying their due. Here are stories on the Swiss court’s decision from Bloomberg and The New York Times.
Even before the Swiss court’s ruling, the UBS tax shelter case had already had more twists than a Chubby Checker record. In February the banking giant entered a deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. prosecutors in which it admitted to criminal wrongdoing for selling offshore banking services that had enabled tax evasion and was fined $780 million.
