UBS tried to narrow the allegations in a French tax trial. Meanwhile a data blockade threatens to further stoke the controversy.
Along with representatives of UBS and its French subsidiary, six individuals will also appear at the start of the process against the Swiss bank. They will be charged, among other things, with tax fraud and money laundering, in what promises to be a complex hearing.
The individuals involved, according to the news agency «AWP» (in German) are the former head of the UBS’s office in Lille, a former business director of the UBS in France and four ex-managers of the institute.
Prominent Banker Charged
Among them is Raoul Weil, who led UBS’s international private banking operation from 2004 to 2008. An application to have allegations against the ex-banker limited was rejected by the Paris court.
The charges against the bank itself relate to money laundering, but the UBS lawyers want the charges to be limited to tax fraud, since this carries a lower penalty. A guilty finding for money laundering could cost the bank up to 5 billion euros ($5.74 billion), according to «AWP». The bank’s lawyers have already described a muted fine of 1.6 billion euros as «ludicrous».
Homemade Blockade
Meantime the «Les Echos» newspaper has reported a data blockade, which threatens to further stoke the controversy on the French side. France apparently has yet to receive any information from Switzerland as part of the automatic exchange of bank client data.
This, while data has begun flowing several other European Union countries since last September. The reason for the blockade however is homemade: for technical reasons France is unable to comply with the data swap, and Switzerland has thus decided not to supply such client data for the time being, it was reported.
