Not long ago, U.S. settlements in the hundreds of millions of dollars for violations of American law by a foreign bank seemed unlikely, if not out of the realm of possibility altogether. Then came the $780 million deferred prosecution agreement with UBS AG in 2009.
Hundreds of Swiss bankers are suing to stop their old employers from turning over to the United States details of their interactions with suspected American tax evaders, according to a tax attorney.
The IRS has identified multiple U.S. banks that it could issue subpoenas to as part of an effort to determine whether international institutions have aided American tax evaders, a former agency official said Monday.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service's criminal division will open more investigations into members of an anti-government group that refuse to pay income tax, according to a senior agency official.
Tax investigations, political turmoil and economic sanctions were among the biggest challenges faced by the compliance departments of financial institutions in 2011, say bank officials and industry experts.
The Financial Action Task Force is weighing whether to ask jurisdictions to loosen their privacy laws and require companies to retain data on their owners, among other changes to the group's standards.
The Financial Action Task Force is likely to reject a proposal that would soften its standard on compliance controls for the accounts of political figures, according to an official at the intergovernmental group.
New York City will begin sharing data on municipal taxpayers with investigators as early as March in an effort to crack down on tax evasion, money laundering and fraud.
A U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation of HSBC Holdings Plc clients suspected of tax evasion may prove easier to prosecute than its case against UBS AG accountholders, say tax attorneys.
Lawmakers proposed a measure Wednesday that would potentially prohibit banks from processing credit card transactions for merchants and maintaining correspondent accounts for financial institutions deemed vulnerable to money laundering and tax evasion.
An influential international anti-money laundering group may request that its members pass legislation tying tax evasion to money laundering as part of an effort to to pierce Swiss bank secrecy.