Swiss account: Wealthy Nigerians, Americans go to court to stop disclosure
By Chinedu Offor, Correspondent, Washington DC



Dozens of wealthy Americans and Nigerians have gone to court to prevent the disclosure of their identities by a major Swiss bank.



In a case filed in a Swiss Federal Court, the clients are seeking an order to keep their names out of the public domain as part of a tax-evasion investigation by the United States Justice Department.

Justice Department officials said the lawsuit accuses UBS and Switzerland's financial regulator, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), of violating Swiss bank secrecy laws and of conducting illegal activities with foreign authorities.

It also named Peter Kurer, the Chairman of UBS, and Eugen Haltiner, the Chairman of FINMA, as defendants.

The suit, filed by a lawyer in Zurich, Andreas Rued, on behalf of about 12 American and Nigerian clients, underscores the growing clash between Swiss banking secrecy laws and those of the U.S.

Tax evasion is not considered a crime in Switzerland.

Disclosing client names under Swiss law is a criminal offence and can expose bank executives and officers to fines, prison terms, and other penalties.

UBS is the world's largest private bank, and Switzerland is the world's largest offshore tax haven, with trillions of Dollars in assets.

The lawsuit is a fall out of UBS's agreement last week to turn over to American federal authorities in Washington the names of 250 wealthy Americans and about 50 Nigerian officials suspected of using secret UBS offshore accounts and entities to evade taxes.

UBS reached a $780 million deferred-prosecution agreement to settle accusations that it used undisclosed offshore private banking services to help wealthy Americans evade taxes.

But the bank is still under scrutiny by the Justice Department, which is seeking to force it to disclose the names of 52,000 American clients it suspects may have evaded taxes.

Some of the affected Nigerians hold dual American-Nigerian passports.

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