Feds Indict UBS Exec on Tax Evasion Charges

The US Department of Justice indicted UBS’ head of global wealth management for enabling the Swiss bank’s American clients to avoid taxes, the Financial Times reports. Although authorities are only specifically pursuing Raoul Weil at this time, they hold that several senior UBS executives are “unindicted co-conspirators.”

As head of UBS’ wealth management business since 2002, Raoul Weil “mandated that Swiss bankers grow the cross-border business despite knowing that this would cause bankers to violate US law,” the indictment says. Weil announced Tuesday that he would temporarily quit his post in light of the investigation. Bradley Birkenfeld, a former UBS private banker, pleaded guilty last June to assisting in tax evasion.
(More UBS stories.)