Skip to main content
Press Release

UBS Client Pleads Guilty to Filing False Tax Return

For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs
Agrees to Pay $6.8 Million to the U.S. Treasury Department

WASHINGTON - Robert E. Greeley, a resident of San Francisco, pleaded guilty today to charges of filing a false federal income tax return, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Greeley appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco and accepted responsibility for concealing more than $13 million in two bank accounts he had with UBS in Switzerland. On June 14, 2011, Greeley was charged with one count of filing a false federal individual income tax return for the 2008 tax year. Judge Breyer scheduled sentencing for Nov. 9, 2011.

 

According to the plea agreement, Greeley admitted that in 2002 and 2004, with the assistance of UBS banker Renzo Gadola, he opened two bank accounts at UBS in Switzerland in the names of Meyrin Investors and Exchange Preferred Limited, both Cayman Islands nominee entities. Greeley admitted that he was the beneficial owner of Meyrin Investors and Exchange Preferred Limited, and that he directed the financial transactions concerning these bank accounts.

 

According to the plea agreement, Greeley admitted that between 2002 and 2008, the Meyrin Investors bank account’s highest total net asset balance was $2,855,894 and the Exchange Preferred Limited bank account’s highest total net asset balance was $12,616,881. Greeley further admitted that between 2003 and 2008, he earned more than $734,000 in interest income in the two UBS Switzerland bank accounts and that none of the interest income was reported on any tax return that he filed with the IRS.

 

According to the plea agreement, U.S. citizens who have a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, a financial account or accounts in a foreign country with assets in excess of $10,000 at any time during a particular calendar year are required to file with the U.S. Department of Treasury a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts on Form TD F 90-22.1 (FBAR). Greeley admitted that between 2002 and 2008, he failed to file FBARs with the Department of Treasury and did not otherwise disclose to the IRS his interest in and control over the UBS accounts. Greeley further admitted that between 2002 and 2008 he willfully failed to disclose on his tax returns that he had an interest in, or signature or other authority over, a financial account in a foreign country.

 

According to the plea agreement, Greeley also admitted that on or about April 15, 2009, he filed a false U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040, for the 2008 tax year, which he signed under the penalties of perjury. Greeley admitted that he willfully failed to report both his financial interest in and signature authority over the two bank accounts at UBS Switzerland and interest income of more than $146,000 that he earned from these two UBS Switzerland bank accounts on his 2008 tax return.

 

In addition to pleading guilty, as set forth in the plea agreement, Greeley agreed to pay a civil FBAR penalty of more than $6.8 million for his failure to file FBARs as required by law.

 

Department of Justice Tax Division Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General John A. DiCicco and Melinda Haag, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, commended the investigative efforts of the IRS agents involved in this case. The prosecution is being handled by Trial Attorneys Christopher Maietta and Jennifer Laraia of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

 

More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at www.justice.gov/tax/ .

Updated September 15, 2014

Component
Press Release Number: 11-1003