PARIS – French prosecutors yesterday requested a fine of at least €2 billion (RM9.82 billion) against Swiss bank UBS, saying it had helped French clients commit tax fraud.
UBS is fighting the case in appeals court after being hit with a €3.7 billion fine in an initial ruling in 2019 – France’s biggest-ever tax evasion penalty.
But the Swiss giant disputes that it ever broke the law.
Between 2004 and 2012, UBS had “great interest in gathering large amounts (of money) by offering efficient wealth management but also concealing that wealth, or part of it, from the French taxman,” prosecutor Muriel Fusina told the court.
French authorities determined that more than €10 billion had been kept from the eyes of their tax officials over that period.
Since then Switzerland’s once-renowned banking secrecy has “crumbled” with the introduction of automatic financial data sharing between countries from 2018, she added.
Meanwhile UBS hopes to reduce the amount of any financial penalty by arguing it should be calculated on the basis of the tax avoided, rather than the total wealth hidden from the taxman.
On top of the fine, government lawyers have asked that UBS be made to pay €1 billion in damages. – AFP, March 23, 2021
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