FOR the first time in the US history, a foreign bank has been
indicted for facilitating tax evasion by US taxpayers. A private Swiss bank,
Wegelin has been ordered by the New York Court to pay $58 million on charges of
hiding $ 1.5 billion in secret accounts and the income generated in those
accounts from the US Government.
According to the indictment, Wegelin opened and serviced undeclared
accounts for US taxpayer-clients in the names of sham corporations and
foundations formed under the laws of Liechtenstein, Panama, Hong Kong and other
jurisdictions for the purpose of concealing some clients' identities from the
IRS. It accepted documents that falsely declared that the sham entities were the
beneficial owners of certain accounts, when in fact the accounts were
beneficially owned by US taxpayers, and making the false documents part of
Wegelin's client files.
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