2023-10-01 22:12:21
Published on October 2, 2023 at 00:12.
UBS made a bold bet on Wednesday, September 27, before the French Court of Cassation. For the record, the bank had seized the highest legal authority in France in order to overturn the judgment on appeal which had condemned it at the end of 2021 for illicit bank canvassing and aggravated laundering of tax fraud. The case concerns the reception of undeclared funds from French taxpayers between 2004 and 2012. An aggravating circumstance, Swiss employees of UBS had gone to French territory to attract these rich clients, which is prohibited. One of the arguments put forward before the Court of Cassation was that at the time, managing funds in Switzerland without trying to find out whether they were declared or not was permitted. This is the case, but it will be hard to make French justice swallow, which decided on appeal to confiscate 1 billion euros from UBS and make it pay 800 million in damages to the State.
In those distant times, banking secrecy was still in force. Well, at least until March 13, 2009, when Federal Councilor Hans-Rudolf Merz officially announced the end of this made in Switzerland specificity. This does not mean that there was no more hush money in Swiss banks on March 14 – or rather the 16th, because the 13th was a Friday. A period of transition then began.
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