UBS Whistleblower to Assist French Investigation Into Swiss Bank

By John Letzing 

ZURICH--A whistleblower who aided the successful U.S. prosecution of Swiss bank UBS AG in 2009 for aiding American tax evasion, has been summoned to help with a similar probe of the lender under way in France.

Bradley Birkenfeld, a former UBS employee who won a $104 million award for helping a U.S. prosecution of the bank that resulted in a $780 million settlement, filed a motion in a Florida court on Friday for permission to travel to France to assist in a separate investigation of the Zurich-based lender now in progress there.

Mr. Birkenfeld, an American who was implicated in the previous UBS case and was given a prison sentence in 2008 for conspiring to defraud the U.S., remains under supervised release and requires approval from the court to travel overseas.

In his filed motion, Mr. Birkenfeld said he received a subpoena on Feb. 3 to appear before a French judge in Paris. The filing notes that the judge, Guillaume Daieff, is "leading the French law enforcement investigation into the activities of UBS." Mr. Birkenfeld included a translated copy of the subpoena, which requests his presence in France on Feb. 27.

French judges have been investigating whether UBS solicited clients in France to open Swiss accounts used to hide assets, and last December the bank lost an appeal against a ruling requiring it to post a EUR1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) bond as part of that probe. UBS has said previously that the bond amount is "exaggerated, speculative and not based on facts," and says it plans to challenge the bond decision at the European Court of Human Rights.

Mr. Birkenfeld said he has been asked to assist the investigation by providing testimony and documents. In the filing, Mr. Birkenfeld said the U.S. Justice Department is aware of the French probe, and has agreed that he should be allowed to make the trip.

A Justice Department spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for UBS also didn't respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Birkenfeld was a key part of the U.S. prosecution of UBS that resulted in the 2009 settlement, which included a deferred prosecution agreement. He had started cooperating with authorities in 2007, by detailing ways that the bank actively helped clients maintain undeclared accounts shielded by Switzerland's bank secrecy laws. At the time of its settlement, UBS acknowledged helping Americans evade taxes.

About a dozen Swiss banks remain under U.S. investigation for aiding American tax evasion, and dozens more have signed up for a related self-reporting program now being run by the Justice Department.

Though many believed the issue was history for Switzerland's biggest bank by assets, UBS acknowledged earlier this week that the Justice Department recently opened a new investigation into whether it helped Americans evade taxes by promoting so-called bearer securities. Bearer securities were largely phased out of use in the U.S. in the 1980s, because of their potential to assist in tax evasion by masking their owner's identity.

UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said earlier this week that because the new investigation is still at an early stage, it was "inappropriate" to speculate about its potential impact on the bank.

Write to John Letzing at [e-mail]

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