Ex-banker heads to Florida to testify in Weil case

A former top executive at Neue Zürcher Bank (NZB) has turned himself over to the United States justice authorities and may testify in the trial of ex-UBS banker Raoul Weil next week, according to media reports.

Swiss public radio, RTS, said on Wednesday that the ex-NZB executive is set to appear in court in the Weil case in Florida on Tuesday. He remains a free man but had to pay $500,000 (CHF480,000) bail, surrender his passport and inform the US authorities of his movements. He had also worked for UBS in the past.

NZB went bankrupt in 2012, three years after being indicted by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for helping US citizens evade taxes.

Weil is also suspected of having helped thousands of Americans evade taxes through his work at UBS. The 54-year-old Swiss citizen was arrested in Italy a year ago and was extradited to the US. He was indicted in 2008 and was on the run from US justice after being labelled a fugitive by a Florida court a year later.

Weil’s indictment accuses him of playing a prominent role in helping UBS’s US clients hide around $20 billion in undeclared assets between 2002 and 2007.

His trial is set to begin on Tuesday. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

The former head of global wealth management at UBS is the highest ranking Swiss banking executive to face trial on US soil.

UBS was fined $780 million in 2009 having admitted to helping US clients evade taxes. The bank’s capitulation signalled the beginning of the end of Swiss banking secrecy.

swissinfo.ch