US Indicts Shamwich Swiss Banker and Lawyer

[John Young]

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/August/09-tax-825.html

Swiss Banking Executive and Swiss Lawyer Charged with
Conspiring to Defraud the United States

Defendants Aided Wealthy Americans Conceal Assets in
Secret Swiss Bank Accounts

WASHINGTON - Hansruedi Schumacher and Matthias Rickenbach,
both of Switzerland, were indicted today for conspiring to defraud
the United States, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) announced. According to the indictment, Schumacher
worked as an executive manager at Neue Zuercher Bank (NZB), a
Swiss private bank located in Zurich, Switzerland. Rickenbach
worked as a Swiss attorney who provided legal advice and services
to U.S. clients. Both are alleged to have aided wealthy Americans
conceal assets and income in Switzerland from United States
authorities.

According to the indictment, Schumacher and Rickenbach helped
wealthy American clients conceal their assets by establishing
sham and nominee offshore entities to hide their U.S. clients'
assets and income while allowing these clients to still control
the assets and make investment decisions.

The indictment further alleges that Schumacher and Rickenbach
regularly traveled to the United States to conduct banking and
investment activities with their U.S. clients and that when they
traveled they concealed their business activities in the United
States by falsely representing to American authorities that they
were traveling to the U.S. for personal reasons. While in the
United States, the defendants would sometimes bring cash
for their clients.

According to court documents, Schumacher and Rickenbach
aided their wealthy American clients repatriate money back
to the United States using several deceptive means. Schumacher
and Rickenbach helped their clients obtain offshore credit cards
and created sham loan documents. Additionally, Schumacher
and Rickenbach falsified bank documents to generate the
appearance that assets of their U.S. clients belonged to Swiss
citizens, and they falsified documents to disguise their United
States clients' repatriation of offshore funds as inheritances
from foreign citizens.

According to court documents, Schumacher and Rickenbach
discouraged their U.S. clients from voluntarily coming into
compliance in the United States. Instead, the defendants
encouraged their clients to transfer their assets from UBS,
a large Swiss bank, to NZB, a smaller bank in Switzerland.
The defendants told their clients that their assets and
identification would be safer at NZB because they had no
presence in the United States and was therefore less likely
to be pressured by the American authorities to disclose the
identities of their United States clients.