You and UBS

by Devilstower
DailyKost
Sat Feb 21, 2009

Swiss bank accounts. Just the term brings with it a mysterious, dangerous air. A place for shadowy assassins to pick up their pay. International agents collecting on acts of extortion. Dusty hordes of Nazi treasure.

However, Swiss giant UBS has admitted to something just as illegal, and a good deal more tawdry. They have been using their operations in the US to lure wealthy Americans into plopping their millions into UBS accounts, where they can evade taxes.

The U.S. government has been probing UBS with help from sources such as a former UBS banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, who last year pleaded guilty to helping a California real estate mogul evade millions of dollars of taxes. Birkenfeld told investigators that UBS personnel went to elaborate lengths to help U.S. clients stash money in secret Swiss accounts.

UBS is complaining that, shortly after the Bush administration came to town in 2001, they signed a get out of jail free card with the IRS; a contract that authorized UBS to hide their clients' identities as long as UBS promised they would follow the rules. Now UBS is holding to the principled position of no-takey-backseys.

(More here.)