US indicts Swiss bankers in offshore tax case

Three men who worked for unnamed bank accused of conspiring with US clients to hide more than $420m, says attorney's office

guardian.co.uk, Reuters, Thursday 20 December 2012

The IRS has indicted three Swiss bankers accused of conspiring with clients
 in the US to hide more than $420m in offshore accounts, according to the
US attorney's office. Photograph: Royalty-Free/Corbis

Three Swiss bankers accused of conspiring with US clients to hide more than $420m (£258.4m) from the tax-collecting US internal revenue service have been indicted, according to the US attorney's office in Manhattan.

The indictment named Stephan Fellmann, Otto Huppi and Christof Reist, all former client advisers with an unnamed Swiss bank. None of the bankers have been arrested, authorities said. Their attorneys were not immediately known. The indictment said the unnamed bank did not have offices in the United States.

Banking secrecy is enshrined in Swiss law and tradition, but it has recently come under pressure as the United States and other nations have moved aggressively to tighten tax law enforcement and have demanded more openness and cooperation.

In April, two Swiss financial advisers were indicted in the US on charges of conspiring to help Americans hide $267m in secret bank accounts.

In January, prosecutors charged three Swiss bankers with conspiring with wealthy taxpayers to hide more than $1.2bn in assets from tax authorities.

UBS, the largest Swiss bank, in 2009 paid a $780mn fine as part of a settlement with US authorities who charged the bank with helping thousands of wealthy Americans to hide billions of dollars in assets in secret Swiss accounts.