(sda) The Zurich branch of the Liechtenstein asset management and consulting firm Allied Finance is also charged. The six defendants also included the then deputy head of the private bank Ihag, who was arrested in Mallorca in mid-August, according to a media release from the public prosecutor’s office in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday.
This has apparently been released by the Spanish judiciary in the meantime and has returned to Switzerland, as the online portal “Finews” wrote on Wednesday.
According to the prosecution, the six bankers accused and Allied Finance hid assets of US taxpayers in undeclared accounts at Ihag Privatbank from the US authorities between 2009 and 2014. According to a plan called “Singapore Solution”, the funds were channeled through various bank accounts in Hong Kong and other places in accounts in the name of a Singaporean asset management company at Ihag.
The former Ihag deputy chief arrested by the Spanish judiciary in Mallorca was also the customer advisor for one of the US tax evaders, it is said. He is alleged to have been involved in tax evasion on assets over $ 50 million. He had already been suspended from his statements at Ihag in August and, according to “Finews”, has since resigned from his offices at Ihag.
One of the other defendants is a director of the holding company Ihag Holding. He is also said to have had a seat in one of the Hong Kong companies. A former chief lawyer at Ihag and former representatives of Allied Finance in Zurich and the Liechtenstein parent company of the same name are also charged.
The indictment was apparently triggered by a US customer’s confession of tax evasion. According to the US law enforcement agency, the six defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Allied Finance could face fines if found guilty.
The private bank Ihag itself had reached an agreement in November 2015 in a tax dispute with the US Department of Justice (DoJ). She had paid a fine of $ 7.45 million for this. The Ihag Bank itself is not charged.
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