By John Letzing
ZURICH--A whistleblower who aided the successful U.S.
prosecution of Swiss bank UBS AG in 2009 for aiding American tax
evasion, has been summoned to help with a similar probe of the
lender under way in France.
Bradley Birkenfeld, a former UBS employee who won a $104 million
award for helping a U.S. prosecution of the bank that resulted in a
$780 million settlement, filed a motion in a Florida court on
Friday for permission to travel to France to assist in a separate
investigation of the Zurich-based lender now in progress there.
Mr. Birkenfeld, an American who was implicated in the previous
UBS case and was given a prison sentence in 2008 for conspiring to
defraud the U.S., remains under supervised release and requires
approval from the court to travel overseas.
In his filed motion, Mr. Birkenfeld said he received a subpoena
on Feb. 3 to appear before a French judge in Paris. The filing
notes that the judge, Guillaume Daieff, is "leading the French law
enforcement investigation into the activities of UBS." Mr.
Birkenfeld included a translated copy of the subpoena, which
requests his presence in France on Feb. 27.
French judges have been investigating whether UBS solicited
clients in France to open Swiss accounts used to hide assets, and
last December the bank lost an appeal against a ruling requiring it
to post a EUR1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) bond as part of that probe.
UBS has said previously that the bond amount is "exaggerated,
speculative and not based on facts," and says it plans to challenge
the bond decision at the European Court of Human Rights.
Mr. Birkenfeld said he has been asked to assist the
investigation by providing testimony and documents. In the filing,
Mr. Birkenfeld said the U.S. Justice Department is aware of the
French probe, and has agreed that he should be allowed to make the
trip.
A Justice Department spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a
request for comment. A spokesman for UBS also didn't respond to a
request for comment.
Mr. Birkenfeld was a key part of the U.S. prosecution of UBS
that resulted in the 2009 settlement, which included a deferred
prosecution agreement. He had started cooperating with authorities
in 2007, by detailing ways that the bank actively helped clients
maintain undeclared accounts shielded by Switzerland's bank secrecy
laws. At the time of its settlement, UBS acknowledged helping
Americans evade taxes.
About a dozen Swiss banks remain under U.S. investigation for
aiding American tax evasion, and dozens more have signed up for a
related self-reporting program now being run by the Justice
Department.
Though many believed the issue was history for Switzerland's
biggest bank by assets, UBS acknowledged earlier this week that the
Justice Department recently opened a new investigation into whether
it helped Americans evade taxes by promoting so-called bearer
securities. Bearer securities were largely phased out of use in the
U.S. in the 1980s, because of their potential to assist in tax
evasion by masking their owner's identity.
UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said earlier this week that
because the new investigation is still at an early stage, it was
"inappropriate" to speculate about its potential impact on the
bank.
Write to John Letzing at john.letzing@wsj.com
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