Deutsche Bank’s Swiss Unit to Pay $31 Million in Tax Case
Deutsche Bank AG’s Swiss unit agreed to pay $31 million to receive a non-prosecution agreement in a U.S. probe of banks in Switzerland that helped Americans evade taxes.
The accord announced Tuesday by the Justice Department is the third-largest of 57 reached this year with Swiss banks. The firms, which must disclose how they helped U.S. taxpayers cheat the Internal Revenue Service, have paid a total of $570.4 million.
Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank has had other legal woes this year. On Nov. 4, it agreed to pay $258 million to the Federal Reserve and New York’s Department of Financial Services, and to fire six employees, to resolve a probe into sanctions violations from 1999 to 2006 for allegedly handling transactions linked to Iran, Libya, Syria, Burma and Sudan. The bank also increased its litigation reserves by 1.21 billion euros ($1.29 billion) in the third quarter, mainly to cover suspected wrongdoing at its Russian equity unit.
In April, the lender was ordered to pay a record $2.5 billion fine and fire seven employees to settle U.S. and U.K. investigations into its role in rigging the London interbank offered rate.
‘Offshore Assets’
In a statement of facts released Tuesday, the bank admitted that from August 2008 through August 2013, “Deutsche Bank Suisse enabled some U.S. taxpayers to evade their U.S. tax and filing obligations, resulting in the filing of false income tax returns with the IRS and allowing U.S. taxpayers to hide offshore assets.”
Since 2008, the bank managed $7.65 billion in 1,072 U.S. accounts, including $986 million in assets through 506 accounts beneficially held by U.S. owners, according to the agreement. U.S. clients held assets in entities created in Liechtenstein, Liberia, Panama and the British Virgin Islands, according to the accord.
“Deutsche Bank (Suisse) SA fully cooperated with the Department of Justice and is pleased to have reached an agreement that resolves this Swiss affiliate’s legacy tax-related issues under the Swiss bank program,” the company said in an e-mailed statement.
Earlier this year, BSI SA agreed to pay $211 million and BNP Paribas (Suisse) SA reached a $59.8 million accord.
