February 4, 2016

The Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced the filing of criminal charges against Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd., a financial institution headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Julius Baer is charged with conspiring with many of its U.S. taxpayer-clients and others to help U.S. taxpayers hide billions of dollars in offshore accounts from the IRS and to evade U.S. taxes on the income earned in those accounts. The Justice Department also announced a deferred prosecution agreement with Julius Baer under which the company admits that it knowingly assisted many of its U.S. taxpayer-clients in evading their tax obligations under U.S. law. The agreement requires Julius Baer to pay a total of $547 million by no later than Feb. 9, 2016. DOJ

Tagged in: Abusive Tax Shelters, Tax Fraud,