| UBS questioned by U.S. Senator over $350m tax evasion case |
UBS has been probed by Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, about whether Credit Suisse, the bank it has acquired, failed to report an American accused of evading taxes on $350m in income. The senior U.S. lawmaker asked in a letter whether Credit Suisse told U.S. tax authorities about accounts held by former military contractor Douglas Edelman, who sold $7bn of jet fuel to the U.S. for use in military campaigns in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Edelman, together with his wife, were accused in an indictment unsealed on 3 July of hiding his profits from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for nearly two decades in one of the largest tax evasion schemes in U.S. history. He was arrested that day in Spain and faces extradition to the U.S., the Justice Department said at the time. The indictment offers “substantial new evidence that Credit Suisse and its employees played a significant role facilitating Edelman's alleged criminal tax conspiracy,” Wyden said in the letter to UBS boss Sergio Ermotti, which came as the Justice Department investigates whether Credit Suisse helped Americans hide assets from the IRS despite pledging to end the practice a decade ago. Credit Suisse pleaded guilty, paid $2.6 bn, and admitted it helped thousands of Americans evade taxes in a high-profile case in 2014.
