Tax Whistleblower Blog

Ongoing UBS Saga

The U.S. has filed suit against UBS, the Swiss bank caught in a deplorable scandal involving secret bank accounts for U.S. citizens attempting to evade U.S. tax.  The U.S. is trying to force disclosure of clients’ names of as many as 52,000 Americans who have hidden their non-taxed earnings in secret Swiss accounts in an attempt to avoid detection by the IRS.

“At a time when millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their homes and their health care, it is appalling that more than 50,000 of the wealthiest among us have actively sought to evade their civic and legal duty to pay taxes,” a representative of the Department of Justice said in a statement.

The lawsuit came a day after UBS agreed to pay $780 million in fines and penalties in order to avoid institutional prosecution on its illicit activity of assisting wealthy Americans to commit tax evasion.  UBS continues to argue that it is legally exempt from providing its clients’ names to the U.S.  This case originated from a tip by a Tax Whistleblower who stands to earn up to $234 million as a reward for information that led to the collection of the fines and penalties.  The Whistleblower also stands to receive additional reward money if the IRS is able to collect from the UBS clients.