Basler Kantonalbank, a Bank headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, has entered into an agreement with the us authorities to pay a fine of $ 60.4 million. The Bank now has three years to prove that three years of its good faith conduct by cooperating with US authorities and disclosing material information about us customer accounts.
The Bank recognises that in the period from 2002 to 2012, was the agreement between the Bank employees, external asset managers, and clients on how to evade U.S. taxes, and file false Federal tax returns, according to OCCRP, citing a U.S. Department of justice.
In the period from July 2008 to March 2009, the Bank opened 398 accounts for customers from the United States, resulting in a new income of $ 441.6 million.
In 2010, the Bank opened about 1 thousand 144 accounts for American customers, the total value of which was approximately 813.2 million dollars. Many of them were undeclared reports that were part of an illegal agreement, the justice Department said in a statement.
The Bank was a “safe haven”, as it is not physically located in the United States, and therefore is inaccessible to American investigators.
“The era of hiding money abroad in order to evade us tax liabilities is over,” said chief Deputy assistant attorney General Richard Zuckerman of the Department of justice’s tax division.
“Financial institutions, professionals and account holders are notified that the Department continues to aggressively pursue these crimes and will prosecute both individuals and legal entities,” he added.
Under the agreement, the Bank has three years to prove its good faith by cooperating with US authorities and disclosing material information about us customer accounts.
As another major Bank of Switzerland and Zuercher Kantonalbank, conducted a similar investigation in the United States in the beginning of this month, in which the Bank should pay about 98 million dollars.
These facts became known as a result of a major campaign, which is held in the United States to clarify offshore tax evasion by wealthy Americans using undeclared Swiss Bank accounts.
