(RTTNews) -
Friday, Swiss financial services firm UBS AG (UBS:
News ) and the governments of Switzerland and the United States have reached an agreement to resolve a massive tax-evasion case.
UBS said, "The US Government has informed the Court in the John Doe Summons matter that the parties have reached an agreement in principle on the major issues and expect to resolve the remaining issues in the coming week."
The company refused to comment further in the matter, at the request of the US and Swiss Governments.
A status conference among the parties has been scheduled for August 7, 2009.
As per the report, in February, the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, backed by the Justice Department, sued UBS to compel it to turn over the names of wealthy Americans who are keeping secret accounts with the bank. It was just a day after UBS agreed to pay $780 million to settle criminal accusations that it defrauded the IRS by allowing thousands of American clients to hide billions of dollars in taxes in secret offshore bank accounts. The bank admitted to wrongdoing and turned over about 250 client names as part of the settlement.
Later, UBS said it cannot comply with a request by the U.S. to disclose the names of 52,000 American account holders suspected of tax evasion, as it violates Swiss criminal law. UBS also said that the IRS summons put the bank in an untenable position, caught between the laws of two sovereign nations. Honoring the IRS summons would require the bank to violate Swiss criminal law, it said.
However, UBS and the Swiss government have intensified their opposition, threatening to send more ripples through the global banking system, according to a report. The Swiss government reportedly said that it would block any move by UBS.
UBS chief executive officer Oswald Grübel, reportedly sent a memorandum to the bank's top executives on Thursday stating that turning over the names "would require UBS to violate Swiss criminal law, and we simply cannot comply."
Further, the report said that judge Alan Gold of Federal District Court in Miami, who is overseeing the case, has ordered prosecutors and the IRS to consult the Obama administration and the State Department and to explain how far the government is willing to go if UBS refuses to disclose the names. The judge wants to know whether it would consider seizing the assets of UBS in the U.S. or force it into receivership, a form of bankruptcy with a court-appointed trustee, the report stated.
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