• 30 May 2008 at 9:58 AM
  • UBS

UBS Banker Helping Feds Nab Tax Dodgers

By John Carney

We always thought that helping wealthy people avoid taxes was what Swiss banks were supposed to do. But it turns out that the government doesn’t agree. And now they’ve turned one of the Swiss gnomes into an informant.
Bradley Birkenfeld, who worked for UBS’s private banking division, is expected to plead guilty at a hearing on June 9th. Specifically, he’ll admit to helping a real-estate mogul evade taxes. Earlier Birkenfeld had pleaded not guilty after he was indicted as part of the US government’s probe into whether UBS helped clients evade taxes.
Birkenfeld guilty plea is probably a signal that he is helping prosecutors identify other UBS customers who hid assets to escape paying taxes. In other news, if you are a UBS client with lots of secret money stashed away in the Alps, you might want to reschedule your New York City shopping trip.
Former UBS Banker to Plead Guilty in U.S. Tax Case [Bloomberg]

Comments (4)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | May 30, 2008 at 10:09 AM

    John, grammatical and sentence structure errors abound…tough to read.

  2. 2
    Posted by John Carney | May 30, 2008 at 10:14 AM

    Thanks. We’ve fired the copy editor, and instructed the intern to clean up the copy.

  3. 3
    Posted by Anal_yst | May 30, 2008 at 10:15 AM

    Whats the over/under (in # of days) till this guy ‘mysteriously dissapears’?

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | May 30, 2008 at 9:37 PM

    WM helping wealthy clients dodge some taxes?? That’s unpossible!!!

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