Reuters: Regulatory News: Baer gave U.S. probe 2,500 employee names - lawyer

Reuters: Regulatory News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Baer gave U.S. probe 2,500 employee names - lawyer Jun 29th 2012, 15:46 Fri Jun 29, 2012 11:46am EDT * Banks have handed over combined 10,000 names - lawyer * At least 11 banks targeted in probe * One criminal complaint filed, more to come - lawyer By Martin de Sa'Pinto ZURICH, June 29 (Reuters) - Swiss bank Julius Baer has handed 2,500 employee names to U.S. authorities, a Geneva-based lawyer said on Friday, as it seeks to free itself from a knotty tax probe that has wreaked havoc among Switzerland's private banks. At least 11 Swiss banks suspected of helping wealthy American clients dodge taxes are in the crosshairs of a U.S. probe which this year forced Wegelin & Co, Switzerland's oldest bank, to split into two. Banks including HSBC and Credit Suisse have given about 10,000 employee names to U.S. authorities in an effort to avoid the fate of Wegelin, which broke up under threat of indictment, bank employees and lawyers said earlier in June. Now Baer, which had 3,643 employees at the end of 2011, has handed over files giving U.S. authorities access to the names of about 2,500 employees, former employees, and external asset managers and lawyers, said Douglas Hornung, a partner at Geneva-based law firm Hornung Avocats. "It is totally against the law: it goes against constitutional rights, the criminal code and Swiss privacy laws," he said. A Baer spokesman declined to comment. Hornung said he had filed a criminal complaint on behalf of the former chief legal counsel at HSBC against the bank's officers and board, which he said had handed over the names of 1,100 employees to U.S. lawmen, citing three sources. The Federal Attorney General confirmed to local press last week that the criminal complaint will be dealt with. HSBC declined to comment. Hornung said he would file more criminal complaints next week, and civil cases within a week to 10 days, but would not take start actions on behalf of people still employed at the banks because this would expose them. In January, Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag said U.S. authorities had given Swiss banks suspected of selling tax evasion services to wealthy Americans until January 23 to hand over the names of client advisers. And in April, Switzerland's Tages Anzeiger newspaer reported the Swiss Federal Council had authorised banks to hand over email traffic connected with these clients to U.S. authorities. "The Federal Council kept saying that no concrete data has been communicated to the United States, but this is not correct," Hornung said. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions