A South Florida jury took only an hour to acquit former UBS AG
wealth-management chief Raoul Weil of criminal charges he helped wealthy
Americans evade taxes, delivering a blow to the Justice Department’s probe
aimed at stopping Americans from using Swiss banks to hide assets.
Mr. Weil, whose trial began three weeks ago, was the
highest-level executive to face criminal charges in the long-running Justice
Department investigation. In a surprise move, Mr. Weil’s defense team chose not
to call any witnesses in their client’s defense, instead sending the case to
the jury Monday after the prosecution finished its case Friday.
The jury’s quick verdict suggests the government did little
to convince jurors of Mr. Weil’s complicity in a scheme that involved
cloak-and-dagger tactics and took years to bring to trial. Mr. Weil was
indicted in 2008, but remained free in Switzerland and was only apprehended in
2013 when he checked into an Italian hotel and triggered a notice that there
was a warrant for his arrest.
Mr. Weil, a 54-year-old Swiss national, was accused of
participating in a conspiracy to help wealthy Americans hide assets at the
Swiss bank to avoid taxes. Prosecutors portrayed Mr. Weil as the leader of a
scheme that trained bankers to act like secret agents on trips to the U.S. to
avoid detection by authorities. They described laptops with hidden hard drives,
bank account statements without names and training sessions at which UBS
employees were told to switch hotels often lest they be recognized by staff.
Mr. Weil’s lawyers argued that rogue bankers—including some
of the government’s witnesses who had agreed to cooperate in exchange for
leniency—were responsible and their client wasn’t involved in the scheme.
The acquittal is a defeat for the government, which has been
cracking down on Swiss banks and had already settled its case against UBS for
$780 million. Earlier this year, the U.S. secured a $2.6 billion fine and a
guilty plea from Credit Suisse Group related to tax evasion. Both banks have
had to turn over the names of some of their customers to the Justice
Department, dealing a major blow to the legendary secrecy of Swiss banks.
The prosecution’s case relied heavily on the testimony of
Mr. Weil’s former underlings, some of whom struck deals with the government.
They described in detail the evasive tactics UBS bankers used to visit American
clients and avoid detection by authorities on trips to the U.S.
The defense attacked those witnesses, arguing they were
trying to save themselves by turning on their innocent boss. Mr. Weil’s lawyers
described UBS’s cross-border banking business catering to Americans as tiny
piece of their client’s management portfolio. They suggested he was too far
removed to orchestrate a conspiracy.
To underscore that point—during a cross-examination of a
government witness—defense attorney Matthew Menchel highlighted the “to” and
“carbon-copy” fields of emails that the prosecution had introduced. Some showed
discussion of ways around an agreement between the Internal Revenue Service and
UBS. Mr. Weil wasn’t included on some of the emails, while on others he was one
of dozens of executives included, even when he was working in Asia or on
European accounts.
Mr. Weil faced up to five years in prison if convicted. As
the trial opened last month, he seemed relaxed, laughing at light moments in
court and chatting with his wife, who sat in the front row, during breaks.
Click
here to access the full article on The Wall Street Journal.