Swiss bank UBS sentenced on appeal to 1.8 billion euros for aggravated money laundering of tax fraud and d – franceinfo

The Swiss bank UBS was sentenced, Monday, December 13, to a total of 1.8 billion euros for aggravated money laundering of tax fraud and illegal bank directing in France between 2004 and 2012, a sentence much lower than that pronounced in first instance. The Paris Court of Appeal has greatly reduced the sanction against the global wealth management giant, which was fined on February 20, 2019 an unprecedented 3.7 billion euros as well as 800 million euros. euros in damages to the State, civil party.

Almost three years later, the Court of Appeal fined 3.75 million euros, confiscating a sum of 1 billion euros on the deposit of 1.1 billion paid by the group, as well as the same 800 million euros in damages.

The French subsidiary UBS France was acquitted of the prosecution for complicity in money laundering aggravated by tax evasion, but sentenced for complicity in illegal bank canvassing, to a 1.875 million euros fine – against 15 million at first instance.

Four of the six former executives prosecuted were also sentenced to suspended sentences of up to one year and a fine of 300,000 euros, most of them lighter than those imposed by the court, which had also sentenced five of between them.

“The decision is difficult to understand”, reacted the lawyer of UBS AG, Me Hervé Temime. “It is a decision whose financial consequences are lower by 2.7 billion (…) compared to the court’s decision”, corn “in principle, there is a conviction, so we will reflect to see if we form a cassation appeal”.