Tuesday April 14, 09:50 PM
UBS client pleads guilty to US tax evasion
WASHINGTON (AFP) - An American client of UBS who hid more than three million dollars in a secret account at the Swiss bank pleaded guilty Tuesday to tax fraud in a Florida court, US officials said.
Robert Moran, a yacht broker, admitted a criminal charge that he had submitted a falsified income tax return, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service announced in a joint statement.
Moran, of Lighthouse Point, Florida, appeared Tuesday before Judge James Cohn in a Fort Lauderdale court "and accepted responsibility for concealing more than three million dollars in assets in a secret bank account at UBS in Switzerland," the statement said.
According to court records, Moran filed a US tax return in October 2008 for tax year 2007 that failed to report his interest in a financial account at UBS.
Additionally, Moran failed to report the income he earned on any UBS Swiss bank accounts.
He was the owner of a UBS account in the name of Winter Drive Investments, a "nominee" Panamanian corporation, the records showed. From 2001 through 2008, Moran communicated with bankers at UBS about the purchase and sale of securities, and the conversion of investments from US dollars to euros.
The judge scheduled sentencing for June 26. Moran faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a maximum fine of 250,000 dollars.
He is the second UBS client to be charged in the sweeping US investigation that has raised hackles in Switzerland where banking privacy is a foundation of the financial sector.
Steven Rubinstein, of Boca Raton, Florida, was charged on April 2 with filing a false income tax return via a criminal complaint. Rubinstein, of Boca Raton, Florida, allegedly failed to report income and assets in a secret UBS bank account.
UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, admitted guilt to US tax fraud in February and identified some 300 US clients, including Rubinstein, who are suspected of tax fraud by US authorities.
The bank was forced by the Swiss financial regulator to hand over details on the suspects, and UBS paid a fine of 780 million dollars as part of a provisional deal to settle the US tax fraud charges.
US officials in a subsequent lawsuit against UBS have requested details on 52,000 more UBS clients suspected of tax fraud.
But UBS, the world's largest manager of private wealth, has refused to hand over the information.
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