http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/13/ubs-us-government-taxUBS in last-ditch talks with US government to protect client anonymity
Swiss bank negotiates stay of court proceedings in bid to protect secrecy of 52,000 American customers from US tax authority
Andrew Clark
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 July 2009 17.31 BST
snip:
The US government has had UBS in its sights for some time. In February, the bank was obliged to pay $780m to settle criminal charges of aiding and abetting tax evasion in a smaller-scale case that culminated in UBS handing over details of about 250 clients. At the time, former UBS employee Bradley Birkenfeld made a series of lurid allegations about the bank's ethics -
including a claim that he smuggled diamonds hidden in a toothpaste tube across an international border on behalf of a UBS client.Long renowned for the discretion of its banking institutions, Switzerland is loath to permit any chink in its armour of secrecy. But experts say times have changed - while foreign clients once had to fly to Switzerland to open or access bank accounts, the country's banks now have branches around the world that actively seek deposits on foreign soil.
"What's been happening here is a pretty significant game of chicken," said Evan Stewart, a specialist in white collar litigation at Washington law firm Zuckerman Spaeder. "This is a slippery slope. If this goes, US citizens' ability to be secretive about their accounts elsewhere in the world is going to be troublesome."
In a statement, UBS would only say that it welcomes a hiatus for negotiations: "It is a positive development that the governments will now engage in intensive discussions over the next two weeks and attempt to negotiate a resolution of the John Doe summons litigation."
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ahhh never mind..the small potatoes are all that matter to small minds. the sarcasm smilie is not working..but this is sarcasm!! amazing people would even discuss " soda" for food stamp users ..when we have Geithner as treasury sec ..and the crooks that are running our government! and no one has faced a damn bit of justice!
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