Swiss go to Washington for tax evasion talks

Swiss officials have gone to Washington for talks on tax evasion after a former employee of Swiss banking giant UBS admitted conspiring to help US clients evade millions of dollars in taxes in a case which could involve as many as 20,000 US tax payers.

The delegation from the Swiss finance and justice ministries will discuss a request for judicial co-operation with their US counterparts after the guilty plea by banker Bradley Birkenfeld before a federal court in Florida, a Swiss justice ministry spokesman told Swiss news agency ATS.

The US Department of Justice said Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to conspiring with co-defendant Mario Staggl to hide about $US200m (₤101m), attracting $US7.2m in US taxes, through an elaborate system of fraud, according to Agence France-Presse.

Birkenfeld admitted that, between 2001 and 2006, while he was a director of UBS' private banking division, he met frequently with wealthy Americans wanting to conceal their assets abroad.

Further reading:

Ex-UBS employee says bank helped clients hide millions