Yahoo – AFP,
26 February 2016
Brussels (AFP) - Belgium on Friday charged Swiss banking giant UBS with "serious and organised" fiscal fraud for encouraging clients to cheat on their taxes, as well as being involved in money laundering.
UBS is in trouble for allegedly encouraging clients to cheat on their taxes and for involvement in money laundering (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini) |
Brussels (AFP) - Belgium on Friday charged Swiss banking giant UBS with "serious and organised" fiscal fraud for encouraging clients to cheat on their taxes, as well as being involved in money laundering.
UBS is also
under investigation in the US and France accused of using Switzerland's banking
secrecy laws to help rich clients avoid tax in their home countries.
"The
Swiss bank is suspected of having approached Belgian clients directly (without
going through its Belgian unit) with the aim of getting them to sign up to tax
evasion products," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.
It said the
charge sheet covered criminal activity involving "money laundering,
illegally acting as a financial intermediary in Belgium, and serious and
organised fiscal fraud."
A spokeswoman
for the prosecutor's office said there was no deadline to close the case, and a
judge would decide to hold a trial or not.
The charges
followed "excellent cooperation" with the French authorities, the
statement said, adding that no further details would be released for the
moment.
UBS told
AFP in an email that it would "continue with its vigorous defense against
unfounded allegations."
In 2014,
the head of the UBS subsidiary in Belgium, Marcel Bruehwiler, a Swiss national,
was also indicted for money laundering and tax fraud.
At the
time, Belgian officials spoke of billions of euros (dollars) deposited in
secret bank accounts in Switzerland on behalf of rich Belgians.
Last week,
French judges completed an investigation into allegations that UBS and its
local unit had encouraged clients to open accounts in Switzerland so as to
avoid the taxes during the period 2004-12.
UBS has
been embroiled in a whole series of similar cases, most notably in the United
States where the authorities said the bank allowed US customers to conceal
their assets and income from the taxman.
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