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TIMELINE
UBS To Name 5,000 Accounts Under US Deal
17 August 2009
The deal initialled last week between the United States and Switzerland over UBS will involve the disclosure of around 5,000 holders of secret Swiss accounts, weekly newspaper NZZ am Sonntag said on Sunday.
Following is a timeline of recent events at UBS:
April 1, 2008 -- Doubles its writedowns as a result of the credit crisis, dumps its chairman, Marcel Ospel, and seeks more emergency capital. It proposes its lawyer, Peter Kurer, as Ospel's successor.
May 6 -- Says it will axe 5,500 jobs and sell billions of dollars of ailing assets to weather the subprime crisis.
June 19 -- A former UBS banker who once smuggled a client's diamonds into the US in a toothpaste tube pleads guilty to helping a billionaire hide $200 million from US tax authorities, part of a broader tax evasion probe of UBS.
Oct. 16 -- Announces it is to get 6 billion Swiss francs ($5.55 billion) from the Swiss government for a 9.3 per cent stake and is to unload $60 billion of toxic assets into a new central bank fund.
Nov. 12 -- Raoul Weil, head of UBS AG's wealth management business, is charged with conspiring to help thousands of wealthy Americans hide $20 billion of assets from US tax authorities in Swiss bank accounts.
Feb. 10, 2009 -- Posts a 2008 loss of 19.7 billion francs, the biggest ever loss for a Swiss company. Cuts 2,000 more jobs.
Feb. 18 - Agrees to pay $780 million and identify certain US clients to settle criminal fraud charges that it assisted rich Americans to evade taxes.
Feb. 19 - US tax authorities say they are still pursuing a civil lawsuit seeking to access details on 52,000 UBS clients.
Feb. 20 -- Warns that it could go out of business if it complies with an order to reveal the names of suspected US tax dodgers and would require it to violate Swiss law in a manner that would expose it to penalties.
Feb. 26 -- Appoints Oswald Gruebel, former head of rival Credit Suisse, as chief executive, replacing Michael Rohner.
March 4 -- Chairman Peter Kurer steps down, replaced by Kaspar Villiger, a former Swiss finance minister.
March 13 -- Switzerland agrees to make concessions on bank secrecy amid a global crackdown on tax evasion.
April 2 -- US authorities arrest and charge an accountant in Florida in the first of what they say could be a series of tax evasion prosecutions of American clients of UBS.
April 5 -- UBS announces worldwide travel ban for wealth management client advisers after coming under scrutiny in the US tax fraud investigation.
May 5 -- Confirms a first-quarter net loss of 2 billion francs on yet more writedowns and client withdrawals, and announces staff cuts of 10,000.
July 9 -- A judge orders the US government to say whether it was prepared to shut Swiss bank UBS AG in the United States.
July 10 -- Gruebel sends a memorandum to the bank's top executives saying the bank could not comply with the US request to disclose the identity of the 52,000 account holders.
July 14 -- Christoph Bandli, President of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court, which has the power to rule on data transfers, says US tax officials can legitimately ask for unnamed client data if they set out a specific category.
July 26 -- The United States is targeting client visits by Swiss-based bankers from UBS to identify US citizens with accounts at the bank who may have evaded tax, a Swiss newspaper reports.
July 28 -- A US client of UBS pleads guilty to using Swiss bank accounts to hide money from the US taxman and says a Swiss government official received $45,000 to help cover up the fraud. Swiss prosecutors launch an investigation the next day.
July 31 -- A US Justice Department attorney says the US and UBS AG have reached an agreement in principle to settle their dispute. Negotiations have focused on the legal details of how to allow the transfer of substantial UBS client data to Washington while respecting Swiss bank secrecy laws.
Aug. 2 -- UBS will not have to pay a fine as part of the settlement of a tax dispute, two Swiss newspapers report. They also report that data on 5,000 UBS clients would be released to US authorities.
Aug. 4 -- UBS posts a Q2 net loss of 1.4 billion francs as wealthy clients are scared off by the tax row.
Aug. 12 -- A US government attorney says agreements have been initialled to settle the tax evasion dispute, but says they will take time to sign in a final form and charges will then be dropped against UBS.
Aug 14 -- US prosecutors in Los Angeles say a California client of UBS will plead guilty to a federal criminal charge stemming from investigation into tax evasion at UBS.
Aug. 16 -- The deal between the US and Switzerland will involve the disclosure of around 5,000 holders of secret Swiss accounts, weekly newspaper NZZ am Sonntag says. Another Swiss weekly, Sonntag, says around 4,500 names would be handed over. |
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