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Failed Prosecution of UBS Exec Shows Limits to Long Arm of US Law
By Colby Adams
printIf the acquittal of Raoul Weil this week was for Swiss bankers a sign of hope and for American prosecutors a signal disappointment, it was both for a single reason: the verdict showed limits the the U.S. Justice Department's ability to punish foreign bankers. U.S. prosecutors accused the former chairman of UBS AG's global wealth management division in 2008 of orchestrating the bank's collusion with American tax dodgers—an allegation that jurors rejected Tuesday. Weil, who was arrested in November, is the highest-ranking banker to face criminal charges as part of a broad U.S. crackdown on banks that facilitate tax evasion....
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Former UBS AG employee Stephanie Gibaud in 2008 was faced with the choice of whether to comply with her employer's request that she destroy records potentially indicating that the bank had courted tax-evading clients. When she refused, the bank psychologically bullied her until she departed in 2012.
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