Government authorities are going after three Swiss bankers suspected of stashing over a billion dollars out of reach of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The Huffington Post published details of the case on Tuesday afternoon, “Three Swiss bankers were charged Tuesday with hiding more than $1.2 billion in U.S. taxpayer accounts from the IRS, by Preet Bharar, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney.” Bharar, of course, is the same U.S. Attorney that recused himself from investigating News Corp.’s phone hacking investigation due to his close relationship with a member of the company’s board, but he’s also one of the most ruthless prosecutors when it comes to major white collar crime cases. Judge Jed Rakoff, recentlyidentified as Occupy Wall Street’s hero in the Department of Justice, for refusing to allow Citigroup to settle a case related to the financial crisis without fully divulging the details of what it did. Of the three bankers charged — following up with the names Michael Berlinka, Urs Frei and Roger Keller — HuffPost’s Marcus Baram noted, “All three Swiss bankers worked at Wegelin & Co., which has been in cross-hairs of US authorities…” and points to a Bloomberg report from last March of a Wegelin banker arrested by F.B.I. agents at the Miami airport in October 2010 and later convicted of money-laundering charges, to which he had confessed.
Read more: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2012/01/irs-swiss-banker-arrests-everyones-been-waiting/46926/
