USA TODAY: ….For what a new federal indictment alleges was a secret rendezvous in a plot that enabled more than 100 wealthy Americans to evade federal taxes on at least $1.2 billion in assets hidden in foreign bank accounts…
“It’s standard procedure for private bankers like this to go to extreme lengths to conceal their clients’ transactions. You hear stories about hiding money in ski poles or using phony names and things like that,” said George Clarke, a Miller & Chevalier law firm partner in Washington, D.C., who has represented clients with foreign accounts.
The charges, the first time a foreign bank has been indicted on charges of facilitating U.S. tax fraud, mark the latest escalation of a long-running Justice Department crackdown on offshore tax evasion that has shattered Switzerland’s vaunted tradition of banking secrecy. UBS in 2009 paid a $780 million settlement to avoid criminal prosecution on charges that its bankers helped thousands of American clients duck federal taxes…. (more)
EDITOR: To dishonestly avoid paying income taxes is stealing from the poor. Some rich people have no sense of being a responsible citizen. For a portion of the fortunate 0.01%, greed rules!
