Swisspartners Investment Network AG, a Swiss-based asset management firm, and three of its wholly-owned subsidiaries (collectively, the Swisspartners Group), entered into a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and agreed to pay $4.4 million to the United States.
The NPA was entered into based on, among other things, the Swisspartners Group’s remedial measures, voluntary self-reporting and extraordinary cooperation, including:
In return Swisspartners Group will not be criminally prosecuted for assisting U.S. taxpayer-clients in opening and maintaining undeclared foreign bank accounts from in or about 2001 through in or about 2011.
The NPA applies only to the four specific entities that are party to it and does not apply to any other subsidiaries of swisspartners Investment Network AG or any individuals.
"The extraordinary cooperation of Swisspartners has enabled us to identify U.S. tax cheats who have hidden behind phony offshore trusts and foundations,” said Deputy Attorney General Cole . “In this and other cases around the world, we will continue to provide substantial credit for prompt and full cooperation.”
“This office will continue to work aggressively to hold accountable not only those U.S. taxpayers who evade their tax obligations by hiding money overseas, but also those abroad who make such tax evasion possible,” said U.S. Attorney Bharara. - Swisspartners Wealth Management AG, a Zurich-based company that establishes and manages entities such as foundations and trusts;
- Swisspartners Insurance Company SPC Ltd., a Cayman Islands-based life insurance carrier that offers life insurance and annuity products; and
- Swisspartners Versicherung AG, a Liechtenstein-based insurance carrier that offers a variety of insurance and annuity products.
- That it knew certain U.S. taxpayers were maintaining undeclared foreign bank accounts with the assistance of the Swisspartners Group in order to evade their U.S. tax obligations, in violation of U.S. law.
- The Swisspartners Group acknowledged that it helped certain U.S. taxpayer-clients conceal from the IRS their beneficial ownership of undeclared assets maintained in foreign bank accounts by, among other things, creating sham foundations and other sham entities that served as the nominal account holders; placing accounts or insurance policies in the names of non-U.S. nationals; facilitating the transportation of large amounts of cash into the United States on behalf of U.S. taxpayer-clients; and
- Arranging for the bulk deposit of cash at Swiss depository financial institutions on behalf of U.S. taxpayer-clients.
The department entered into the NPA based on factors including:
- the Swisspartners Group’s voluntary implementation of various remedial measures beginning in or about May 2008;
- the Swisspartners Group’s voluntary self-reporting of its criminal conduct at a time when it was neither a subject nor target of any investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice;· the Swisspartners Group’s voluntary and extraordinary cooperation, including its voluntary production of account files that include the identities of U.S. taxpayer-clients;
- the Swisspartners Group’s willingness to continue to cooperate to the extent permitted by applicable law; and
- the Swisspartners Group’s representation, based on an investigation by outside counsel, the results of which have been shared with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Tax Division, that the misconduct under investigation did not, and does not, extend beyond that described in the Statement of Facts.
Source:
DoJ
Read more at: Tax Times blog
