U.S. authorities have settled with another Swiss bank in connection with alleged tax evasion offences.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that it has reached a deal with Zurich-based Finter Bank Zurich AG under its Swiss Bank Program, which allows banks to avoid potential criminal charges in exchange for agreeing to pay penalties and to fully cooperate with U.S. authorities.
Under a non-prosecution agreement signed on Friday, Finter agreed to pay a US$5.4 million penalty; to implement controls to stop misconduct involving undeclared U.S. accounts; and to cooperate in any related criminal or civil proceedings in return for the department’s agreement not to prosecute the bank for any tax-related criminal offences.
The DoJ reports that Finter maintained almost 300 U.S.-related accounts with an aggregate maximum balance of approximately US$235 million since Aug. 1, 2008. It says the bank helped U.S. clients open and maintain undeclared accounts in Switzerland, which concealed the assets and income held in these accounts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“Finter provided services that allowed U.S. clients to eliminate the paper trail associated with the undeclared assets and income, including ‘hold mail’ services and numbered and coded accounts,” it says.
The DoJ also says that Finter accepted accounts from U.S. taxpayers that were leaving other Swiss banks, which were under investigation by U.S. authorities.