A former UBS AG executive Raoul Weil was found not guilty of
conspiring with US clients to hide $20 billion from the IRS in secret
international bank accounts. “Weil was the highest-ranking Swiss banker
prosecuted under an IRS and Justice Department crackdown on Americans’ use of
offshore accounts to dodge U.S. taxes,” reports
the Associated Press.
The verdict comes as a blow to the US government, which has
been increasingly pursuing international banks and Americans who use offshore
accounts to dodge taxes. It also was surprising: In 2009 UBS paid a $780
million US fine for helping US citizens avoid taxes. The Swiss banking giant
disclosed thousands of American account holder names, many of whom were later
prosecuted by the IRS.
Testimony against Weil detailed the lengths to which the
banker supposedly went in order to conceal wrongdoing. Weil allegedly kept
sensitive client data under a “solitaire” game tab on an encrypted laptop with
an emergency password that would delete any trace of the customer’s data if it
was seen by the wrong person.
A
DOJ spokesperson said that, despite the verdict, the US government will
continue pursuing banks, and their executives, suspected of helping wealthy
Americans avoid billions in taxes.
