"
There was no obligation to verify the client's tax situation
": at UBS's appeal for laundering tax fraud, a former executive on Wednesday invoked Swiss banking secrecy ensuring that the bank was between 2004 and 2012 , well in the nails.
The global heavyweight in wealth management is suspected of having sent Swiss charge d'affaires in France to canvass the French so that they put their money away from the tax authorities in Switzerland.
Read also: Tax fraud: the UBS appeal trial opened in Paris
Judged since March 8, the bank had been imposed during the first trial in 2019 a record fine of 3.7 billion euros.
Of the six former executives also retried, only Raoul Weil, former number 3 of the parent company, UBS AG, had been released.
But the appeal of the prosecution brings back to the bar this 61-year-old Swiss, with whom the court is struggling to be understood despite the presence of an English-speaking interpreter.
"
We have to go back to 2008. At that time, there was no obligation to check the tax situation of customers,
" argues Mr. Weil.
And "
under Swiss law, we were not allowed to actively assist a client in tax evasion
."
However, some 4,000 UBS clients had, at the end of 2015, regularized their situation with the tax authorities within the “
sobering up
”
cell
opened in France, underlines a court magistrate, Hervé Robert.
"
In 25 years, there is no client who has come to tell me that he had a problem with the taxes
", answers the defendant.
"
Yes, as in all banks, there are customers who cheated, it was well known and this is the reason why the European Union has decided to strengthen fiscal discipline
".
"Complex money"
From 2005, an agreement signed with the EU imposed withholding tax on the Swiss accounts of European nationals.
And in 2018, Switzerland set up the automatic exchange of data, thus signing, on paper, the end of its banking secrecy.
Over the course of the interrogations, the court seeks to understand the distinction between “
simple money
” and “
complex money
”, the latter term corresponding according to testimonies to undeclared money.
"
It was not an official terminology of the bank,
" said Dieter Kiefer, former head of the Western Europe division on Tuesday.
According to him, the first corresponds to "
simple products like stocks, bonds
", the second to a portfolio "
with a tax consideration in the products offered
".
However, it is not a concealment aid, assure the defendants.
Just like the services offered at the time by the bank - poste restante (so as not to receive statements at home), numbered account ... They were offered "
by all the banks in the Swiss financial center
" to offer "
confidentiality. superior
”to customers, argued Mr. Kiefer.
"
Office of legends
"
Several internal documents fuel the prosecutions for illegal canvassing in France, one of them called "
security risk governance
": it was recommended that salespeople have no client name on them or be unpredictable when traveling.
"
It's a bit like the Bureau of Legends [the French spy series Editor's note] when you read this document,
" the court remarked to Philippe Wick, ex-boss of the France International department.
Salespeople "
sometimes went to countries that were much less friendly than France,
" Mr. Wick tried.
UBS's lawyer, Denis Chemla, then rushed to his aid, citing an attestation according to which this document was "
never communicated
" to the teams.
In another note, called "
country paper
", "
there are quite ambiguous formulas
", noted the president of the court, François Reygrobellet.
In particular, it was not necessary to cross the border with the signed contracts but that they had to be sent directly to Switzerland.
"
I agree that it can be confusing but it is not the case,
" replied Mr. Wick, ensuring that regular training on illegal canvassing was organized and that deviations were sanctioned.
And why were the laptops used by salespeople “
encrypted
”?
“
As are the majority of [computers] for people traveling with sensitive data
,” Wick replies.
“
For reasons of banking secrecy
”.