Geneva, Switzerland – The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has made a formal request to travel to Switzerland to probe a multi-million-dollar tax evasion case involving top Swiss bank UBS.
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The move follows the confession of former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld to a Florida court that he conspired to help wealthy American clients dodge millions of dollars in taxes.
Birkenfeld admitted that while he was director of UBS, he met frequently with wealthy Americans wanting to conceal their assets abroad.
Birkenfeld said he as other managers, also advised clients to conceal their assets by buying jewels, art and luxury goods using the money in their Swiss accounts and then deposit them in Swiss safety boxes.
The New York Times reported that the case could involve some 20,000 US citizens.
Swiss officials from the justice and finance ministries have already travelled to Washington for talks with their US counterparts amid fears the case could damage the overall reputation of Switzerland’s financial sector.
The US probe is a further headache for UBS, once a byword for safe and reliable investments but which lost 37 billion dollars on the US subprime crisis.
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Fools! You should have used banks in Lichenstein or the Cayman Islands.