The Swiss government said Wednesday that it was prepared to seize U.B.S. client data rather than allow the bank to hand it over to the United States to settle a tax case.
U.B.S. has refused a demand from U.S. authorities that it turn over the names of 52,000 American clients, arguing that to do so would be illegal under Swiss banking secrecy laws and would open it to prosecution at home. The U.S. Justice Department in February sued U.B.S., saying it suspected the bank of helping wealthy Americans hide billions of dollars in secret offshore accounts.
«Switzerland makes it perfectly clear that Swiss law prohibits U.B.S. from complying with a possible order by the court in Miami to hand over the client information,» the Swiss Department of Justice and Police said Wednesday in a statement on its Web site, a day after it made a filing to the same effect in the U.S. District Court in Miami. Therefore, «all the necessary measures should be taken to prevent U.B.S. from handing over the information on the 52,000 account holders demanded in the U.S. civil proceeding,» it added.
The Swiss government will issue an order explicitly prohibiting U.B.S. from handing over client information «if circumstances require,» it said.
Serge Steiner, a U.B.S. spokesman in Zurich, said it has always been U.B.S.’s position that divulging the client data would be a breach of Swiss law, and »the issue should be discussed by the two friendly governments.» The bank, he added, is »always open to an appropriate solution.»
U.B.S. has refused a demand from U.S. authorities that it turn over the names of 52,000 American clients, arguing that to do so would be illegal under Swiss banking secrecy laws and would open it to prosecution at home. The U.S. Justice Department in February sued U.B.S., saying it suspected the bank of helping wealthy Americans hide billions of dollars in secret offshore accounts.
«Switzerland makes it perfectly clear that Swiss law prohibits U.B.S. from complying with a possible order by the court in Miami to hand over the client information,» the Swiss Department of Justice and Police said Wednesday in a statement on its Web site, a day after it made a filing to the same effect in the U.S. District Court in Miami. Therefore, «all the necessary measures should be taken to prevent U.B.S. from handing over the information on the 52,000 account holders demanded in the U.S. civil proceeding,» it added.
The Swiss government will issue an order explicitly prohibiting U.B.S. from handing over client information «if circumstances require,» it said.
Serge Steiner, a U.B.S. spokesman in Zurich, said it has always been U.B.S.’s position that divulging the client data would be a breach of Swiss law, and »the issue should be discussed by the two friendly governments.» The bank, he added, is »always open to an appropriate solution.»