Update 21 August  Miami, Florida, USA (GenevaLunch) - A banker for NZB (Neue Zürcher Bank), Hansruedi Schumacher, and a Geneva and Zurich lawyer, Matthias Rickenbach, both Swiss, were indicted Thursday 20 August in Miami, Florida on charges of conspiring to defraud the US. The two are accused by the US of helping US residents to evade American taxes, including Jeffrey Chernick of New York and John McCarthy of Pasadena, California, two of four UBS clients who recently have been indicted for tax fraud after their names were given to the IRS in February 2009 by the bank, and who turned themselves in.

The two are accused, among other things, of telling “a New York businessman they paid an unnamed Swiss government official a $45,000 bribe for information on whether the businessman’s account would be revealed to US investigators,” Associated Press reports court documents as stating. AP also says the two are in Switzerland and it is not clear if they have US attorneys to represent them.

The New York Times says the new indictments indicate “that the American authorities are starting to pursue smaller players that may have helped Americans hide their money.”

The NY Times also names a number of senior executives at NZB, which was started by Martin Ebner, and the top Swiss private banks where they previously worked, including Pictet in Geneva and Bank Julius Baer in Zurich, implying that the IRS is throwing a wider net in its search for American tax evaders.

The charges come just one day after the US and Switzerland announced the details of their out of court settlement in the UBS case, with the US agreeing to make a request for a new treaty and the Swiss government promising to handle the US request for information on 4,450 UBS accounts, part of the treaty, within a year.

The US Justice Department in its press release on the case quotes IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman: “This is another step in our ongoing effort to pursue hidden offshore assets – no matter where they are located. We’re in the early stages of our work to crack down on offshore tax evasion. Through our efforts, we are gaining access to more and more information on institutions and individuals involved in offshore tax evasion, and you can expect us to use all of our enforcement tools to stop this abuse. For people with hidden offshore assets, they have an opportunity to get right with the government. Time is quickly running out, and people should take advantage of our voluntary disclosure process before special provisions expire September 23.”

The Justice Department, in the press release, clarifies the obligations of US citizens abroad:

US citizens who have an interest in, or signature or other authority over, a financial account in a foreign country with assets in excess of $10,000 are required to disclose the existence of such account on Schedule B, Part III of their individual income tax return. Additionally, American citizens must file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or F-Bar, with the U.S. Treasury, disclosing any financial account in a foreign country with assets in excess of $10,000 for which they have a financial interest in or signature authority, or other authority over.

US Justice Department press release in full

Related: AP, New York Times

Interview by Bloomberg with Pictet’s Jacques de Saussure

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