UBS chairman may be tied to alleged IRS fraud
Chairman Kurer sat on 2002 panel that U.S. says knowingly withheld American tax information
By Neil Roland
March 2, 2009 2:15 PM ET
UBS Chairman Peter Kurer sat on a high-level 2002 corporate committee accused by U.S. prosecutors last month of “knowingly” withholding information relating to its obligations to report on American taxpayers’ secret accounts, according to a recently released federal document.
The U.S. Department of Justice alleged that the UBS Group Executive Board that ran the Swiss bank’s daily business operations contributed to a conspiracy to defraud the United States of tax revenue.
The allegation is contained in a single paragraph of an 11-page exhibit attached to the bank’s settlement of a U.S. criminal investigation filed with the court last month.
“Executives on UBS’s executive board knowingly” failed to tell the Internal Revenue Service in Sept. 2002 of an internal audit showing deficiencies in UBS’s implementation of its tax oversight obligations, prosecutors alleged.
The bank was required under an agreement with the U.S. to report and withhold taxes on American clients, according to the exhibit, a document that constitutes a written accusation of crimes signed by prosecutors.
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