The Department of Justice and U.S. authorities have been going after offshore banks that are suspected of helping accountholders in the United States to evade their tax obligation.  Banks that believe they could be criminally prosecuted but that are not yet under investigation can head off criminal charges by coming forward voluntarily in order to participate in the DOJ’s Swiss Bank Program.  Finter Bank, a Zurich bank, has become the latest bank to sign a non-prosecution agreement through the Swiss Bank Program. 

Swiss banks have taken part in a long-standing practice of secrecy that people throughout the United States have taken advantage of in order to avoid reporting income and paying taxes on some investment income.  

Banks can be prosecuted by U.S. authorities for failure to report offshore accounts, for failure to report suspicious transactions, for processing suspicious transactions, and a host of other criminal acts. Many of the criminal acts that banks are prosecuted for involve the financial institution facilitating wrongdoing on the part of customers with which it is conducting business. 

Federal authorities take tax evasion seriously and are increasingly pursuing criminal charges against those who hid offshore accounts. Just recently, the CEO of Atlanta-based Circlenet, LLC was sentenced to four months incarceration in a federal prison for having undeclared income and offshore accounts that he had not declared. 

Federal authorities are going after not only banks, but also individual bankers and financial advisors who may have helped U.S. clients to evade their income tax obligations.  Just this past February, a superseding indictment was handed down against financial advisors who worked for Wegelin, one of Switzerland’s oldest banks.