Report: UBS to be asked for U.S. client names

A subpoena would demand the names of American clients who may have used the firm’s services to avoid paying taxes.

U.S. prosecutors are expected to slap UBS AG with a subpoena demanding the names of wealthy American clients who may have used the firm’s services to avoid paying income taxes, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing lawyers and others involved in the case.
The subpoena would follow the unsealing of a grand jury indictment Tuesday in a federal court in Florida of former UBS private banker Bradley Birkenfeld and Mario Staggl, a Liechtenstein businessman skilled in setting up trusts in Europe and offshore tax havens, (InvestmentNews, May 14).
The indictment charged Mr. Birkenfeld and Mr. Staggl with conspiring to defraud the United States by helping clients hide assets in accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, moves that allegedly allowed clients to avoid reporting taxable income to the IRS from 2001 through 2006.
Mr. Birkenfeld pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Mr. Staggl is at large and believed to be in Liechtenstein.
Zurich, Switzerland-based UBS and the Department of Justice declined to comment.
The investigation into the alleged tax schemes at UBS comes amid a multinational probe into the role that Liechtenstein, a European principality, played as a tax haven for citizens from at least eight countries, the report stated.