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Article

16 Feb 2012

Author:
Martin de Sa'Pinto and Lynnley Browning, Reuters

Oldest Swiss private bank is newest U.S. target

...[At the beginning of February] the U.S. Justice Department, acting on plans it had been making for weeks, indicted the 270-year-old bank on charges of enabling wealthy Americans to evade taxes on at least $1.2 billion from 2002 through last year...The charges made Wegelin the first overseas bank in history to be indicted by U.S. authorities and marked a milestone in a burgeoning American crackdown on Swiss bank secrecy...Last week,...a U.S. court...declared the bank a fugitive...After the hearing, Wegelin said in a statement that "the circumstances create a clear dilemma for Wegelin & Co: If it were to adhere to current U.S. legal practice aimed at Swiss banks, it would have to breach Swiss law." Swiss law protects client confidentiality...Switzerland does not consider tax evasion a crime for its own citizens and residents. [also refers to UBS, Credit Suisse, Basler Kantonalbank]