ZURICH: In an embarrassing blow to US prosecutors, a former Swiss private banker has been acquitted of helping US clients hide money offshore and avoid paying tax. Stefan Buck was head of private banking and a member of the executive committee at now-defunct Bank Frey & Co in Switzerland.
In April 2013, he and Edgar Paltzer, a former partner of Swiss law firm Niederer Kraft & Frey, were charged with conspiring with US taxpayer clients and others to hide millions of dollars in offshore accounts and evade US taxes on the income earned on those accounts.
Paltzer pleaded guilty in August 2013 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Despite Switzerland having no extradition treaty with the United States, Buck agreed to travel to the US in 2016 to face the charges.
In a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday, Buck was found ‘not guilty’, according to various media reports.
