Swiss Seek End to Disclosure of UBS Client Names

As previously reported here, the Department of Justice and UBS entered into a deferred prosecution agreement wherein UBS is to pay a fine and disclose to DOJ the names of its some 52,000 clients that have used UBS to park income in violation of U.S. tax laws. The New York Times reports today that the President of Switzerland has asked Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, to drop what the Times inexactly reports to be a lawsuit to disclose the names of the UBS clients. In fact, under the deferred prosecution agreement, UBS has to cooperate with DOJ by providing the client’s names. My guess, Mr. Geithner, who had his own tax issues, isn’t going to touch this one. DOJ has already prosecuted two folks whose names UBS disclosed and, inevitably, many more such prosecutions will follow.

UBS Client Pleads Guilty Yesterday to Filing False Tax Return

In a well timed guilty plea, the day before tax day, Robert Moran, entered a plea yesterday in federal court in Ft. Lauderdale, according to this report from the Miami Herald, to filing a false tax return. The Herald reports that Moran, the founder and president of Moran Yacht & Ship in Ft. Lauderdale, had $3.4 million in a UBS account in Switzerland as of year end 2007, but didn’t report to the IRS that he had the account and did not declare the income from the account as required by law.

Moran is the second UBS client to face criminal tax charges since UBS agreed in February to a deferred prosecution agreement with the government to provide the IRS with the identities of and account information for U.S. customers of UBS’s overseas accounts. UBS also agreed to pay a fine of $780 million.

Moran faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.