FORMER UBS BANKER CHARGED WITH HELPING AMERICAN CLIENT CONCEAL ASSETS OFFSHORE
SEC Registered Swiss Banker Traveled to Miami to Persuade Client to Not Disclose Offshore Account
Renzo Gadola, 44, has been charged with conspiring to defraud the United States. Gadola, a former UBS banker, was arrested in Miami, Florida after having met with a client at a Miami hotel and having attempted to persuade that client to not disclose to the United States that the client owned and controlled a bank account at Basler Kantonalbank, a regional bank headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.
According to court documents, Gadola, a citizen and resident of Switzerland, was a registered investment advisor with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). From approximately 1995 through August of 2008, Gadola was employed as a private banker by UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank. In February 2009, Gadola began working in Switzerland as an independent investment advisor, doing business under the name RG Investment Partner AG.
According to court documents, Gadola worked closely with a fellow former UBS banker who was not registered with the SEC and who had indicated that he was afraid of traveling to the United States for fear of being arrested because of his cross-border banking activities. Hence, the two arranged that Gadola would travel to the United States and meet with the clients to discuss their investments in undeclared accounts.
According to court documents, on November 6, 2010, Gadola met with a client in a Miami hotel. This client owned and controlled an undeclared account at Basler Kantonalbank. The undeclared account was funded when the client provided Gadola’s partner, the former UBS banker, with approximately $445,000 in cash. The client had provided the cash to the former UBS banker during two meetings at a hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana.
According to court documents, during the November 6, 2010 meeting, Gadola attempted to persuade the client to not disclose the Basler Kantonalbank account to United States authorities. Gadola told the client that there was a “99.9 %” chance the client had nothing to worry about because the “likelihood . . .that they will somehow. . . find out about the account is practically zero percent.” Further, Gadola told the client that there was no “paper trail” associated with the undeclared account.
“It is incomprehensible to think that bankers would still come to the United States and perpetrate tax fraud. Those who continue to enable Americans to evade their income tax obligations will be held accountable. We are combing through leads and Americans who continue to secrete money offshore will be exposed,” said United States Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer.
“This case demonstrates that the IRS and the Department of Justice continue to investigate and prosecute the bankers and other professionals who help individuals conceal their assets offshore and commit fraud against the United States,” said John A. DiCicco, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Tax Division.
IRS-CID Special Agent in Charge of the Miami Office Daniel W. Auer stated, “Anyone who advises their clients to lie to the IRS will be held accountable, just as those who actually commit the frauds. We owe it to every American taxpayer to use all lawful means to identify and prosecute both those who evade their taxes, and those who assist them in evading their tax obligations.”
Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Acting Assistant Attorney General John DiCicco, and Internal Revenue Service Special Agent in Charge Daniel W. Auer commended the investigative efforts of the IRS agents involved in this case, as well as Senior Litigation Counsel Kevin M. Downing, Trial Attorney Mark F. Daly, Trial Attorney Michelle M. Petersen of the Tax Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Neiman, who are prosecuting the case.
More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at www.usdoj.gov/tax/.
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A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
