Business Crimes Hotline

Bachmann's role included trips to the U.S. each year to provide unlicensed and unregistered investment and banking services, with the purported knowledge of his executive management. Bachmann is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 8, 2014 and faces a maximum of five years in prison. His plea is the next step in the Department of Justice's (DOJ) continuing investigation into the efforts of multiple Swiss banks to assist U.S. citizens in evading taxes. As part of that investigation, the U.S. Government previously offered amnesty to banks not already under investigation. The DOJ previously reported that more than 100 Swiss banks had applied for the program. In exchange for amnesty (in the form of a non-prosecution agreement), applicant banks will be required to provide information on how they assisted U.S. customers in concealing assets, provide data on the secret accounts used to provide such assistance, and pay a corresponding penalty.

VIRGINIA

Guilty Plea by Former Swiss Banker Is Latest Stein in Long-Running Probe

On March 2, Swiss citizen Andreas Bachmann pled guilty to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) before Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in connection with his work from 1994 through 2006 as an investment and banking adviser for U.S. customers while at his former employer, a unit of Credit Suisse. Bachmann was previously charged along with six other former bankers of the Zurich-based bank. As part of his plea, Bachmann admitted his role in assisting U.S. customers to conceal income and assets in secret accounts in Switzerland.

Bachmann's role included trips to the U.S. each year to provide unlicensed and unregistered investment and banking services, with the purported knowledge of his executive management. Bachmann is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 8, 2014 and faces a maximum of five years in prison. His plea is the next step in the Department of Justice's (DOJ) continuing investigation into the efforts of multiple Swiss banks to assist U.S. citizens in evading taxes. As part of that investigation, the U.S. Government previously offered amnesty to banks not already under investigation. The DOJ previously reported that more than 100 Swiss banks had applied for the program. In exchange for amnesty (in the form of a non-prosecution agreement), applicant banks will be required to provide information on how they assisted U.S. customers in concealing assets, provide data on the secret accounts used to provide such assistance, and pay a corresponding penalty.