On March 30, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had entered into a non-prosecution agreement with Swiss bank BSI SA for aiding U.S. taxpayers to evade income taxes through unreported offshore accounts—the first resolution under the DOJ’s Program for Swiss banks.1 The Program, announced on Aug. 29, 2013, is an amnesty program for Swiss banks not already under DOJ investigation.2 In exchange for disclosing certain information regarding all U.S. related accounts since 2008, cooperation, and payment of a penalty, a bank may qualify for a non-prosecution agreement. Following the Program’s announcement, over 100 Swiss banks—nearly a third of all Swiss banks—registered to participate.
The Program for Swiss Banks is just one component of a broad campaign to recover evaded taxes on unreported offshore accounts. Following the groundbreaking UBS deferred prosecution agreement in 2009, the DOJ has warned of impending actions against banks in a number of countries. Since then, the DOJ has obtained settlements or convictions against six foreign banks, four from Switzerland.3 The BSI non-prosecution agreement, however, may be a bellwether of an accelerating pace of investigations to come.
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