The New York Times reports:
Tearing a hole in the veil of secrecy surrounding Swiss banking, UBS agreed on Wednesday to pay $780 million to settle federal claims that it helped wealthy Americans evade taxes and to disclose the names of up to 19,000 clients.…
Under the agreement, UBS admitted to conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.
It’s that agreement to give up the names of its wealthy clients that’s the big deal here. The bank had been refusing to disclose the names, but appeared to cave with the threat of indictments hanging over its head.
Prosecutors allege that UBS helped clients evade $300 million a year in taxes.
Last fall, Raoul Weil, who ran the firm’s global wealth management and business banking division, was indicted in connection with the scheme. And a few months earlier, a former UBS exec, Bradley Birkenfeld, pleaded guilty to helping a client evade millions of dollars in federal income taxes while with the firm.