R.T.Sakthidaran

On 1st July 2008, the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) of USA filed a case No.09-60033-CR-COHN against the largest bank of Switzerland, �UBS AG� (UBS) for the bank�s fraudulent activities in the US District Court, Southern District of Florida. On 19th February 2009, UBS signed a �Deferred Prosecution Agreement� with USA and UBS agreed on eleven points including revealing 20,000 secret accounts.

However, subsequently on April 30, 2009 UBS AG asked a U.S. court to reject demands by U.S. tax authorities for confidential information about its American clients, saying disclosure would violate Switzerland�s bank secrecy laws�.

The firm Obama and his government made UBS and Swiss government to come to an agreement on August 19, 2009. According to this agreement UBS, will disclose the names of approximately 4,450 American account holders suspected by the IRS of evading taxes. In return, the U.S. Justice Department will withdraw its lawsuit against the banking giant and stop demanding the names of 52,000 Americans accused of hiding assets in offshore accounts.

Further Developments

1.The Swiss government disposed of its UBS investment just a day after signing an agreement with the US government to release data on some 4,450 American clients of UBS suspected of evading taxes.

2.The Swiss government’s exit leaves the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) as the largest shareholder of UBS, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the bank.

3.Ex-UBS AG banker Bradley Birkenfeld, who assisted U.S. investigators probing about $20 billion in taxpayer assets hidden overseas, was sentenced to more than three years in prison for conspiring to help wealthy Americans evade taxes.

I wish our Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India and his Government might be keenly watching the developments and identify suitable strategy to bring back our $1456 billion (Rs. 72,80,000 Crores) lying in the private banks of Switzerland. If some thing can be done on this issue in India, it would be possible only during Manmohan Singh’s time.

Jai Hind

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