ZURICH – Swiss wealth manager UBS AG (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N) is closing all the offshore accounts of its U.S. clients, the bank said on Friday, as it comes under pressure from U.S. tax authorities.
The Swiss bank decided to stop offering offshore accounts to U.S. citizens after it was targeted by a U.S. tax investigation which challenges Switzerland's famous banking secrecy laws.
U.S. prosecutors have alleged UBS helped clients hide $18 billion of untaxed American money in undeclared accounts. This amounts to around $300 million of annual unpaid taxes, the newspaper said.
This big announcement by UBS comes at a particularly curious time: Just 9 days after I reported how the state of Israel has been mis-using foreign aid sent by the US, to bribe members of Congress. You can read that bribery story here.
They got caught. They know they're caught. They're trying to cover their tracks. Sorry boys. Too late.
Read UBS announcment story here
