The Tax Times: Swiss Banker Who Testified Against UBS' Raymond Weil Avoids Prison

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Swiss Banker Who Testified Against UBS' Raymond Weil Avoids Prison

A Swiss banker, Hansruedi Schumacher, who cooperated extensively in the United States' unsuccessful prosecution of former high-ranking UBS AG executive Raoul Weil received unsupervised probation in his Swiss homeland and a $150,000 fine on October 5, 2015 in a Florida federal court for his role in helping U.S. clients evade taxes.

The prosecutors' sentencing memorandum indicated that the sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of 57 to 71 months and a fine ranging from $10,000 to $100,000.

Schumacher, who also worked at Neue Zuercher Bank and once ran the cross-border business for UBS, was indicted in August 2009 on a charge of helping U.S. citizens evade taxes on UBS and NZB accounts; pled guilty in April, just before he was set to go on trial. His case was part of an extensive crackdown against Swiss banks in the mid-2000s, according to defense filings.

Despite his offenses, Schumacher's “willingness to come forward and subject himself to U.S. jurisdiction and cooperate, when he had no pressure to do so, cannot be overvalued,” prosecutors said in their motion for downward departure from those guidelines. “Although charged with a crime, he could have remained in his native country for the remainder of his life free from any danger that the Swiss government would extradite him.”

Schumacher returned to the U.S. in October 2014 to face a 2009 indictment and appeared later that month as a key prosecution witness in Ex UBS Executive Raymond Weil's trial in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, under an agreement that his testimony could not be used against him in his case as long as it was truthful.

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