According to an indictment that was unsealed yesterday in a Manhattan federal court, Swiss asset manager Peter Amrein was charged of aiding Americans from avoiding taxes from the years 1998 to 2012. The indictment also revealed that Amrein co-conspired with Swiss lawyer Edgar Paltzer, who had pleaded guilty in August last year in a New York court.
Paltzer is said to have been cooperating with tax authorities to crack down offshore tax evasion, Bloomberg said. Paltzer's contributions helped the US government go after and formally filed criminal charges against over 100 people, which included over 30 bankers, lawyers and advisers and around 70 US taxpayers. Authorities have also said that fourteen banks, including Switzerland's second-largest bank Credit Suisse Group AG, are under criminal investigation.
US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement about Amrein's involvement in the conspiracy, "From his post in Switzerland, Peter Amrein aided and abetted U.S. taxpayers in their efforts to skirt the tax code and conceal their assets in offshore accounts."
The Swiss national has yet to be arrested, Bloomberg said. If found guilty, Amrein will be facing up to five years in prison on conspiracy charges.
The indictment revealed that Amrein worthed at a bank in Zurich from 1998 to 2006, and then was employed at an asset management firm until 2012. It was also learned that Amrein provided advisory and wealth management services services, which also include how one could hide assets to avoid the IRS.
The indictment also revealed how Amrein conducted his means to help clients avoid paying taxes. Amrein reportedly opened, maintained, and managed accounts that were undeclared at Swiss banks, which contained undeclared assets valued in millions of dollars, and had worked with Paltzer often. The indictment also disclosed that he had worked on hiding assets for nine clients in various ways, which included using front foundations in order to hide the true owner of the accounts.
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