Two foreign bankers, one a former UBS private banker, were today indicted in Florida for defrauding USA’s Internal Revenue Service (IRA) by helping billionaire Igor Olenicoff, a real estate developer from Orange County, Calfornia, evade US taxes on $US200m (₤103m) hidden in Swiss and Liechtenstein bank accounts.

Birkenfeld, who was arraigned in Fort Lauderdale, entered a plea of not guilty and was released on a $US100,000 secured bond and $US2m personal surety bond. The other defendant, Mario Staggl, a Liechtenstein citizen and resident, remains at large, the government said.

According to the indictment, brought by the US attorney for Southern Florida, Olenicoff, said to be worth $US1.6bn, named an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’, settled with the government in December when he pleaded guilty to one charge of filing a false 2002 individual income tax return and paid $52m in back taxes, interest and civil fraud penalties.

The indictment alleges Birkenfeld and Staggl defrauded the IRS by falsifying Swiss bank documents and W-8BENs and by setting up ‘nominee entities’ to hide the true ownership of assets. Staggl was allegedly the owner of New Haven Trust Company, a Liechtenstein trustee of accounts used to hide Olenicoff's ownership of assets.

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