Former UBS executive found not guilty in U.S. tax cheating trial
A former top banker who headed global wealth management at UBS AG (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N) was found not guilty on Monday on U.S. charges of conspiring with wealthy Americans to hide $20 billion in secret offshore accounts.
Raoul Weil, the highest-ranking Swiss banker to stand trial in the United States, was accused in South Florida federal court of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.
The verdict was a major setback to the U.S. Justice Department which spent six years seeking to prosecute Weil, including extraditing him from Italy last year.
“The jury sent a strong message to the government. This case should never have been brought,” said Weil’s lawyer, Matthew Menchel.
“For a jury to acquit after only an hour means that there were some huge holes in the government’s case,” said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Miami.
In a defense motion for acquittal filed last week, the defense argued that the government offered no evidence “to show that Mr. Weil ever knowingly agreed with any U.S. client to defraud IRS.”
Instead, the defense said the while government presented evidence of wrongdoing by UBS bankers, it focused most of its case “on witnesses who offered testimony of misconduct that was never connected to Mr. Weil.”
As a result of the verdict, future efforts by the U.S. government to bring tax fraud cases “will require more than just the word of former alleged co-conspirators,” said Weinstein.
If convicted, Weil faced up to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit tax fraud.
Source: Reuters-Former UBS executive found not guilty in U.S. tax cheating trial
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