Wealth Management Crisis at UBS (A) (PAUL HEALY & GEORGE SERAFEIM & DAVID LANE)

Amid the carnage created by the financial crisis ofautumn 2008, Swiss-based banking giant UBS faced additional challenges. Since midyear, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had been  investigating the bank for tax fraud, and claimed that UBS had helped some 52,000 U.S. residents hide billions of dollars in untaxed assets in secret Swiss accounts between 2000 and 2007, depriving the U.S. Treasury of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.

Hoping to negotiate a settlement that would allow UBS to avoid criminal indictment, UBS executives and Swissregulators came to New York City on October 17, 2008 to present the findings of an internal report enumerating instances of tax fraud within the bank.

To their surprise, DOJ lead investigator Kevin Downing announced that no settlement would occur unless the bank named U.S. tax evaders.

The implications of the situation for UBS were dire: either imperil the company by having it face federal indictment for tax fraud in the U.S. or break nearlya century of Swiss banking privacy law by revealing client information, which could seriously harm the firm’s competitiveness

LINK DOWNLOAD

Amid the carnage created by the financial crisis ofautumn 2008, Swiss-based banking giant UBS faced additional challenges. Since midyear, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had been  investigating the bank for tax fraud, and claimed that UBS had helped some 52,000 U.S. residents hide billions of dollars in untaxed assets in secret Swiss accounts between 2000 and 2007, depriving the U.S. Treasury of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.

Hoping to negotiate a settlement that would allow UBS to avoid criminal indictment, UBS executives and Swissregulators came to New York City on October 17, 2008 to present the findings of an internal report enumerating instances of tax fraud within the bank.

To their surprise, DOJ lead investigator Kevin Downing announced that no settlement would occur unless the bank named U.S. tax evaders.

The implications of the situation for UBS were dire: either imperil the company by having it face federal indictment for tax fraud in the U.S. or break nearlya century of Swiss banking privacy law by revealing client information, which could seriously harm the firm’s competitiveness

LINK DOWNLOAD

Chuyên mục: D. Luận văn kinh tế