The Tax Times: No Jail Time for Former Credit Suisse Bankers who helped Americans Evade Tax

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

No Jail Time for Former Credit Suisse Bankers who helped Americans Evade Tax

We previously posted Credit Suisse To Pay $1.8 Billion for Conspiracy Aid Taxpayer's Evade U.S. Taxes! where we discussed that on Wednesday, March 12, 2014, a former Credit Suisse Banker, Andreas Bachmann, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in connection with his work as a banking and investment adviser for U.S. customers.

He and 6 other Credit Suisse bankers were indicted in 2011 on a charge that they helped U.S. clients hide $4 billion in assets from the IRS. Solely Dorig and Bachmann voluntarily came to the U.S. to enter their guilty pleas.

On Friday March 27, 2015, Dorig and Bachmann were given five years’ unsupervised probation and fines of USD100,000 and USD125,000 respectively by a US judge. Dorig and Bachmann admitted in their guilty pleas that they helped U.S. clients hide assets and income in secret Swiss bank accounts. Both men helped clients conceal accounts in the names of phony structures created in the forms of trusts, corporations or foundations.

Prosecutors say Bachmann, who worked as a banker for Credit Suisse before becoming an asset manager at a Swiss asset management firm, would travel to the U.S. twice a year to meet with U.S. clients and provide cash withdrawals from their undeclared accounts.

Dorig helped some of Bachmann's U.S. clients create and maintain structures to conceal the true ownership of their foreign undisclosed financial accounts. Dorig worked for Credit Suisse subsidiaries between 1973 and 1997, and authorities say he was active in forming those structures. Prosecutors allege that Credit Suisse and its subsidiaries continued to refer U.S. clients to Dorig even when he left the bank and created his own company.

US taxpayers who have undeclared accounts in Credit Suisse or other Swiss banks, may now want to consider applying for the US Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), which sets a limit to the penalties imposed on them by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for failing to declare foreign assets and earnings.

Once either:

The Swiss Banks disclose an account holder's name to the IRS under the non prosecution agreement or

Mr. Andreas Bachmann or Josef Dorig or Markus Walder or Susanne Ruegg-Meier or Roger Schaerer discloses an account holder's name to the IRS or

Any 1 of the other 11 Credit Suisse Bankers, who were indicted in 2011 along with Mr. Dorig, discloses an account holder's name to the IRS

the OVDP election is no longer available to that account holder!!!

Taxpayers Who Wish To Take Advantage

Of The OVDP Must Act Quickly!