BROWSE BY TOPIC
- Bad Brokers
- Compliance Concepts
- Investor Protection
- Investments - Unsuitable
- Investments - Strategies
- Investments - Private
- Features/Scandals
- Companies
- Technology/Internet
- Rules & Regulations
- Crimes
- Investments
- Bad Advisors
- Boiler Rooms
- Hirings/Transitions
- Terminations/Cost Cutting
- Regulators
- Wall Street News
- General News
- Donald Trump & Co.
- Lawsuits/Arbitrations
- Regulatory Sanctions
- Big Banks
- People
TRENDING TAGS
Stories of Interest
- Sarah ten Siethoff is New Associate Director of SEC Investment Management Rulemaking Office
- Catherine Keating Appointed CEO of BNY Mellon Wealth Management
- Credit Suisse to Pay $47Mn to Resolve DOJ Asia Probe
- SEC Chair Clayton Goes 'Hat in Hand' Before Congress on 2019 Budget Request
- SEC's Opening Remarks to the Elder Justice Coordinating Council
- Massachusetts Jury Convicts CA Attorney of Securities Fraud
- Deutsche Bank Says 3 Senior Investment Bankers to Leave Firm
- World’s Biggest Hedge Fund Reportedly ‘Bearish On Financial Assets’
- SEC Fines Constant Contact, Popular Email Marketer, for Overstating Subscriber Numbers
- SocGen Agrees to Pay $1.3 Billion to End Libya, Libor Probes
- Cryptocurrency Exchange Bitfinex Briefly Halts Trading After Cyber Attack
- SEC Names Valerie Szczepanik Senior Advisor for Digital Assets and Innovation
- SEC Modernizes Delivery of Fund Reports, Seeks Public Feedback on Improving Fund Disclosure
- NYSE Says SEC Plan to Limit Exchange Rebates Would Hurt Investors
- Deutsche Bank faces another challenge with Fed stress test
- Former JPMorgan Broker Files racial discrimination suit against company
- $3.3Mn Winning Bid for Lunch with Warren Buffett
- Julie Erhardt is SEC's New Acting Chief Risk Officer
- Chyhe Becker is SEC's New Acting Chief Economist, Acting Director of Economic and Risk Analysis Division
- Getting a Handle on Virtual Currencies - FINRA
ABOUT FINANCIALISH
We seek to provide information, insights and direction that may enable the Financial Community to effectively and efficiently operate in a regulatory risk-free environment by curating content from all over the web.
Stay Informed with the latest fanancialish news.
SUBSCRIBE FOR
NEWSLETTERS & ALERTS
FOLLOW US
U.S. Has Secret Weapon in Probe of Swiss Banks
October 22, 2012
[ by Melanie Gretchen ]
It takes one to know one. Such may be the situation of a former Swiss banker, accused of helping rich Americans dodge taxes. Reports are rampant that he may be cooperating with a broad U.S. government investigation of Swiss banks for providing tax evasion services. Considering 11 banks are under investigation, and UBS paid the DOJ $780 million, any assistance from Christos Bagios could be a game changer.
Who is Christos Bagios?
- An ex-employee of Swiss banks Credit Suisse AG and UBS AG who arranged a change-of-plea hearing following his pleading not-guilty in a U.S. federal court to new charges of aiding tax evasion
- An important part of the puzzle: a guilty plea by him, which some lawyers said he is likely preparing for as part of a cooperation deal with the DOJ which could pressure Swiss banks targeted by the investigation
- A central figure in the U.S. probe into offshore tax evasion services sold by Swiss and Swiss-style banks.
- A Greek citizen and Swiss resident, Mr. Bagios was a senior private banker at Credit Suisse at the time of his arrest by U.S. authorities in January 2011.
- Faced accusations a month later of conspiracy and fraud in connection with allegedly helping 150 Americans hide up to $500 million from the Internal Revenue Service while he worked at UBS from 1999 to 2005.
Since then:
-
the U.S. filed new charges on Tuesday to effectively override the earlier 2011 charges, and that shortened the time covered at UBS. They assert that:
- Mr. Bagios told one U.S. client to sign UBS documents falsely declaring that the client was a Malaysian national, not a U.S. citizen.
-
Mr. Bagios and his co-conspirators, court papers alleged, told some UBS clients wishing to sneak hidden money back into the U.S. that they needed to "wash" their undisclosed assets back into the banking system, by transferring small, undetectable amounts into their declared UBS accounts.
-
Mr. Bagios pled not guilty on Wednesday to the new charges before Judge Barry Seltzer of Federal District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- He is scheduled for a change-of-plea hearing on 10/26/12, according to court papers
For further details, go to [Reuters, 10/17/12] and [Dealbook, 2/18/12].
Related Stories: Archive
-
Legal Funding Firm Accused of Scamming 9/11 Heroes, NFL Retirees
February 8, 2017 -
Elizabeth Warren, Wall Street Pariah, Now Has Lost Her Left-Wing Following
January 19, 2017 -
What We Know and Don’t Know About the Trump-Russia Dossier
January 11, 2017