U.S. Wants 'John Doe' Swiss Account Information

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2008— -- The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to serve an IRS subpoena, seeking records from Swiss banking giant UBS AG, that might implicate U.S. taxpayers in alleged tax evasion and other schemes.

The request comes 10 days after former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist his U.S. clients to avoid paying federal income and other taxes to the IRS.

Court records submitted as part of his guilty plea indicate Birkenfeld organized numerous schemes to assist his clients, including buying jewels, artwork and luxury items with funds from the Swiss accounts, while overseas, and using Swiss bank credit cards, claiming the records could not be traced by U.S. authorities.

In one case, court documents noted, "At the request of a U.S client, defendant Birkenfeld purchased diamonds using the U.S. client's Swiss bank account funds, and smuggled the diamonds into the United States in a toothpaste tube."

Birkenfeld, who worked for UBS and offered wealth management and tax services to wealthy American clients, left the Swiss banking conglomerate in 2006 to set up a separate corporation to establish offshore accounts and move the UBS funds he managed.

Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to helping Igor Olenicoff evade paying $7.2 million in taxes, and helped him conceal $200 million in assets.

Olenicoff, a successful real estate investor, was once ranked as Forbes magazine's 286th richest man in the United States. He pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges in December, and agreed to pay $52 million in back taxes and cooperate with investigators as part of his plea.

Court records in the case note that Birkenfeld "assisted wealthy United States taxpayers create offshore nominee and sham entities to act as foreign beneficial owners of the offshore accounts. Doing so enabled United States taxpayers to avoid filing W-9 forms identifying them, which consequently meant that UBS would not report the United States taxpayers' identities or their income to the IRS."