Geneva - Authorities in the United States and the Zurich-
based bank UBS AG filed a motion Sunday, with the backing of the
Swiss government, to have their court case on client data postponed
to allow for further negotiations.
The request to delay the proceedings until August - if no
agreement is reached - was filed as the clock ticked down to the
start of the trial at 1300 GMT Monday in Miami, Florida.
The US has demanded UBS hand over data on about 52,000
US-tax-paying clients of the bank, and implied it will not be willing
to walk away from the case without at least some information.
The Swiss government has said it would seize the data, if the US
court demanded its disclosure, to prevent any violations of the
Alpine confederation's banking confidentiality laws.
US and Swiss officials are trying to negotiate a solution to the
quagmire, and the motion wants to allow them more time for their
talks.
'UBS welcomes the announcement that the US and Swiss governments
have agreed to negotiations for the purpose of resolving the John Doe
summons litigation,' the bank said on its website, using the
technical term for the suit.
'Further information is not available as the already ongoing
settlement negotiations between the US and Swiss governments are
confidential,' the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police
said in a statement.
While not disclosing specific details, the US said it would
continue to seek information on some of the bank's clients.
'The parties have agreed that any alternative resolution reached
would necessarily include a provision requiring UBS to provide the
Internal Revenue Service information on a significant number of
individuals with UBS accounts,' the US Department of Justice said in
a statement on its website.
'If an alternative resolution is not reached, the Department of
Justice will continue to vigorously pursue enforcement of the summons
through the court,' it read.
Reports in the Swiss media have suggested UBS might hand over some
names, probably of clients who were involved in some form of tax
fraud, if it could get a guarantee that the case would then be
closed.
In February, one day after UBS admitted wrongdoings, handed over
information on a reported 250 clients and agreed to pay 780 million
dollars in fines, the US launched the new demand for more data. The
bank's employees are said to have helped wealthy clients evade paying
their taxes.
Switzerland is in the process of renegotiating its double-taxation
agreements with various governments, including the US, in order to
get off the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's
so called 'grey list' of countries without sufficient disclosure.
USA
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