Wednesday May 7, 10:26 AM
UBS executive held by US authorities in tax evasion probe
ZURICH (AFP) - UBS (Virt-X: UBSN.VX - news) bank said on Wednesday that one of its senior executives had been detained by United States authorities, with the status of a witness, in relation to a tax evasion investigation.
"We are cooperating with the authorities, but it is too early to say what would be the consequences" of this investigation, a UBS spokesman told AFP, after the Financial Times had reported the matter.
The bank (NASDAQ: TBHS - news) said in a statement received by AFP that the US Department of Justice was looking into whether some of its citizens had sought "with the assistance of UBS client advisors, to evade their US tax obligations".
The US Securities and Exchange Commission was also investigating if Swiss-based client advisors from the bank had engaged in activities that should have required UBS Switzerland to register with the commission as a broker-dealer or investment adviser.
The bank added that it was cooperating with the investigations.
UBS did not give the identity of the detained banker, who was identified by the FT report as Martin Liechti, who was based in Switzerland and headed the bank's international wealth managment business for North and South America.
The bank said only that the employee had been detained under a "material witness" warrant.
"Our understanding is that the respective employee, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing by the US government, will remain in the United States pending discussions with the US authorities regarding resolution of his status as a witness," said the bank in a statement.
It declined further comment on the pending investigation.
UBS said on Tuesday that it could cut up to 5,500 more jobs within the next year as it struggles to recover after wracking up huge losses in the US subprime home loan crisis.
The bank, said its net loss for the first three months of the year was 11.54 billion Swiss francs (7.08 billion euros, 10.97 billion dollars).
Writedowns for the quarter were 19 billion Swiss francs, in line with a warning issued by the bank in April when it also said its net loss would be about 12 billion Swiss francs.
Total writedowns for the bank has reached over 37 billion dollars since the start of the financial crisis.
|
|
|
Send Article by Email
Send Article by IM
Blog This with Y! 360
Printable View
