Tuesday, August 18, 2009

150 Americans targeted in UBS Swiss bank tax-evasion case





Maybe it me, but didn't Jesus say
"We reap what we sow"

Now I don't know about you, but the Dollar Bill I got is US currency do I figure I gotta render to the US what is the US and to God what is God's.

Ahhh does that mean I have to DO something?

Hmmm, maybe all that prosperity comes with a price and it isn't about all I can get away with, but what I give away it for?

Ya think? Maybe?

Am I wrong or do I need another shot of coffee, or a longer talk with God?

Guess investing in overseas isn't the same as investing in Heaven....

Michael James Stone


More than 150 wealthy American customers of Swiss banking giant
UBS (UBS)
are under investigation for suspected tax evasion, federal
prosecutors disclosed Tuesday.

The glimpse at the breadth of the probe of Americans

who may be hiding offshore assetsfrom the IRS came

in a Florida federal court filing as UBS prepared to give

federal authorities the names of other U.S. clients

expected to face similar investigations.


Details of the handover, expected as soon as today,

"will produce the identities and account information

of additional UBS customers who are believed to have

violated United States law," acting U.S. Attorney

Jeffrey Sloman said in the court filing.


Florida tax attorney Martin Press and other lawyers

for UBS clients say they expect the bank will

provide data for thousands of U.S. account holders

— but not for all of the estimated 52,000 customers

the IRS demanded in a lawsuit. The handover stems from a settlement in that case last week.


The 150 Americans targeted by prosecutors are

among more than 250 U.S. clients of UBS whose financial

data the bank gave to U.S. investigators earlier this year

because their accounts bore signs of tax evasion. Besides

providing the data, UBS agreed to pay $780 million to

defer prosecution of criminal charges that it sent its

bankers on secret trips to the U.S. to help customers hide assets.


So far, three of the clients whose accounts were

included in the first UBS handover have pleaded guilty

to filing tax returns that failed to report millions of

dollars in assets or income. A fourth is set to plead guilty

in September to charges of failing to report a UBS account

allegedly used to evade taxes on more than $1 million

in business income.


In all four cases, the UBS clients disguised their ownership

of the secret accounts by controlling them through

entities in Hong Kong, Panama or the British Virgin Islands

, court records show.


Tuesday's court filing came in the case of

Bradley Birkenfeld, a former UBS banker who pleaded

guilty last year to charges he conspired to help some

of the bank's American clients evade taxes.

Cooperating with prosecutors, he provided secret details

of UBS' strategies for its U.S. clientele.


Birkenfeld faces a maximum five-year federal

prison term at a scheduled Friday sentencing in

Fort Lauderdale. But prosecutors, citing his

"substantial assistance," recommended a 2½-year sentence.


Defense attorney Robert Stickney wrote separately

that Birkenfeld's "extraordinary" cooperation merited five years' probation.