UBS angrily rejected a French ruling against the Swiss bank in a tax evasion and money laundering trial. The wealth manager accuses France of flouting Swiss laws.
A French court on Wednesday delivered a long-awaited ruling in a years-long criminal investigation of UBS over allegations that the Swiss bank helped evade taxes and launder funds: the bank was hit with a 3.7 billion euro ($4.2 billion) fine and 800 million euros in damages.
As expected, UBS quickly vowed to fight back, saying in a statement it is also looking at «whether the written decision requires any additional steps». The criminal judgement is suspended pending the move to appeals court, which essentially retries the whole case.
In a lengthy justification, UBS defended itself on grounds that it has not acted criminally, and slammed the handiwork of French justice officials. The conviction of the bank is not rooted in evidence, UBS said, «but instead is based on the unfounded allegations of former employees who were not even heard at the trial».
Prejudices Confirmed?
Further, French prosecutors offered no evidence that UBS's private bankers pitched Swiss offshore accounts while on French soil, the bank argued. Lacking this smoking gun, there is no crime, according to UBS' thinking: the decision represents a bid to enforce French law in Switzerland, it said.
«This undermines the sovereignty of Swiss law and poses significant questions of territoriality», UBS said. The bank doubled down on its criticism, saying the ruling effectively confirms bias.
UBS, which ponied up 1.1 billion euros in «corporate bail» in 2014, also let loose on how the French judge arrived at the penalty, saying it couldn't identify a credible methodology behind it. It dismissed charges of laundering the proceeds of tax fraud as without merit, on the basis of the original tax fraud by its French clients being unproven.
