UBS director charged with tax evasion

A senior member of the UBS executive board was charged with tax evasion yesterday during an ongoing investigation by the US Department of Justice of allegations the Swiss bank helped clients avoid taxes.

Raoul Weil, a Swiss citizen and the UBS chairman and chief executive of global wealth management, is accused of helping 20,000 American UBS customers hide $20bn (£13.3bn) of assets from the Internal Revenue Service, which could put him in prison for a maximum of five years and a earn him a $250,000 fine.

Weil, who sits on the bank’s group executive board, the most senior management level below its main board of directors, oversaw UBS’s cross-border private banking business, the unit at the centre of the continuing investigation, between 2002 and 2007.

UBS said Weil had decided that, in the interest of the firm and its clients, and in order to defend himself, he would 'relinquish his duties at this time, pending the resolution of this matter'.

Further reading:

UBS looks to settle private banking tax issues

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