"It is unclear whether the bank was required to turn over American client names who held secret Swiss bank accounts"
- Jeffrey Neiman, a former federal prosecutor
The oldest private bank in Swiss, Wegelin, said that it would be closed permanently after its guilty plea to helping Americans evade their taxes through secret accounts. The bank also agreed to pay $57.8m (£36m; 44m euros) in fines. The U.S. authorities will receive $20 million in restitution, forfeit $15.8 million and pay a fine of $22 million. During the 8 year period, from 2002 till 2010, the bank was allowing more than 100 American citizens to hide around $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service. Wegelin to become first foreign bank, which was pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges in the world's biggest economy.
"It is unclear whether the bank was required to turn over American client names who held secret Swiss bank accounts," said Jeffrey Neiman, a former federal prosecutor involved in other Swiss bank investigations who is now in private law practice in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "What is clear is that the Justice Department is aggressively pursuing foreign banks who have helped Americans commit overseas tax evasion."
"Once the matter is finally concluded, Wegelin will cease to operate as a bank," Wegelin said in a statement on Thursday from its headquarters in the remote, small town of St. Gallen next to the Appenzell Alps near the German-Austrian border.
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