Asset manager who helped U.S. find tax cheats beats Swiss spy charges

Basler Kantonalbank

31/08/2018 20:44

By John Miller
    ZURICH, Aug 31 (Reuters) - A Swiss asset manager who in 2013
provided U.S. prosecutors with more than 100 files from clients
suspected of dodging taxes has been cleared of spying-related
charges in his home country, recently published Swiss court
documents showed.
    Martin Egli, who had hired one of the country's best-known
defence attorneys to help clear his name, was awarded 33,300
Swiss francs  ($34,031) in the case, mostly for legal fees. 
    Contacted by Reuters on Friday, Egli confirmed the verdict
and said he bore no grudge. The case is closed, he said,
declining to provide any further comment.
    In a 17-page ruling, a Swiss judge concluded there was
insufficient evidence to convict him. It was delivered in May,
but published only later by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court.
Details have not been widely reported, even in Switzerland.
    "It can be presumed in favour of the accused that he
believed in the legality of his approach and didn't consider the
possibility that he acted unlawfully for a foreign state," the
ruling said.
    In November 2013, Egli's Swisspartners Group provided
records on 109 clients to the U.S. Department of Justice, court
documents show, helping his company secure a relatively mild
$4.4 million settlement deal with American prosecutors
aggressively pursuing tax cheats with wealth stashed abroad. [https://reut.rs/2NzxLWs
]
    The move landed him in trouble in Switzerland, however,
where authorities accused Egli of "forbidden actions in the
service of a foreign country." The Swiss attorney general's
office (OAG) sought fines of $275,000. 
    While U.S. DOJ officials lauded his "extraordinary
cooperation" at the time, Egli was criticized at home by some
Swiss media for turning over client data as he secured a
non-prosecution agreement for Swisspartners.
    Egli remains the chairman of Swisspartners. His lawyer was
Lorenz Erni, who represented ex-FIFA chief Sepp Blatter when he
fought ethics charges in 2015 before being banned from football.
    Egli's case is an easy-to-miss footnote among the billions
of dollars of U.S. settlements in recent years reached by dozens
of Swiss banks over harbouring untaxed assets. 
    Banking secrecy once made Switzerland a haven for offshore
money, though recent changes have made it difficult to hide
assets here from tax authorities.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1PC3ZR
    In 2014, Credit Suisse  CSGN.S  paid $2.6 billion after
pleading guilty to conspiring to help U.S. citizens dodge taxes.
 This month, Zuercher Kantonalbank agreed to pay nearly $100
million, while Basler Kantonalbank paid over $60 million to U.S.
authorities.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1VJ15Y
    ($1 = 0.9697 Swiss francs)

 (Editing by Andrei Khalip)
 ((zurich.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com; +41 58 306 7336;))