Tax Evasion Settlement

Swiss bank UBS Group AG yesterday agreed to pay $511M to settle a criminal investigation by the US Justice Department that found Credit Suisse (the bank UBS bought in 2023) helped wealthy Americans evade taxes on more than $4B in at least 475 offshore accounts. The settlement comes more than a decade after Credit Suisse pledged to halt such practices. 

In the most recent case, Credit Suisse admitted to conspiring to help wealthy individuals prepare and file false US tax returns from 2010 to 2021 and was found to have repeatedly failed to fully disclose offshore accounts to authorities. The settlement comes two years after the US Senate Finance Committee found Credit Suisse had breached its 2014 plea agreement with the US government.

UBS said it was not involved in the misconduct, which occurred before UBS bought Credit Suisse for $3.2B under a Swiss government-brokered deal to avoid a potential banking crisis.