UBS Client Pleads Guilty to Evasion

Submitted by Melissa Hoffmann on Tue, 07/28/2009 - 14:58

A New York businessman who last year was reportedly talked out of coming clean with the IRS pleaded guilty Tuesday to tax charges stemming from a wide-ranging investigation into secret accounts at Swiss bank UBS AG, according to the Associated Press.

He implicated four other people and detailed the bribery of a Swiss government official, according to Bloomberg News.

Jeffrey Chernick, 70, today admitted in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he didn’t declare $8 million held at UBS, the largest Swiss bank by assets. He’s the third UBS client to plead guilty since the bank gave more than 250 customer names to the IRS under a Feb. 18 agreement to avoid prosecution for helping wealthy Americans evade taxes.

He faces up to three years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, according to the AP. U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn set sentencing for Oct. 30.

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