UBS has achieved success in the tax evasion trial with France. The Court of Cassation in Paris partially annulled the lower court’s ruling. This applies, among other things, to the penalties and the payment of civil damages. UBS insists on its innocence and emphasizes that there is no concrete evidence.
The highest court in France has finally found the major bank guilty of unlawful customer recruitment and money laundering. However, there will be a new procedure to determine the amount of the fine. Now the case goes back to the appeal court in Paris.
In December 2021, this demanded a payment totaling a good 1.8 billion euros from UBS. This includes a fine of 3.75 million, the confiscation of 1 billion euros and a civil damages payment of 800 million. UBS has set aside 1.1 billion euros for the legal dispute.
Brief assessment by France correspondent Daniel Voll
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The Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, confirms the guilty verdict against UBS for money laundering and tax fraud. But the big Swiss bank gets off lightly when it comes to punishment. The Court of Cassation criticizes the Paris Court of Appeal. In December 2021, it collected deposit money of 1 billion euros and ordered UBS to pay 800 million euros to the French state as compensation for lost tax revenue. The only thing that remained undisputed was a fine of 3.75 million francs that UBS had to pay.
The Paris Court of Appeal must now reopen the case in another trial and decide again. Within the framework that the French highest court has now given him.
UBS appealed against this and was now successful. There was already a hearing before the Court of Cassation at the end of September. However, France’s highest court does not fundamentally reassess cases, but only whether there were formal errors.
UBS insists on its innocence
UBS maintains its innocence and emphasizes that there is no concrete evidence. UBS was pleased that the highest court in France shared the bank’s position on important aspects of the legal dispute, it said in a statement. The court collected the payment totaling a good 1.8 billion euros.
Caption: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
However, UBS is disappointed that the Court of Cassation has confirmed the lower court’s guilty verdict for unlawful customer recruitment and serious money laundering of tax fraud proceeds.
New proceedings before the appeal court
Now there are new proceedings at the French Court of Appeal. The impasse in the legal dispute, which has already lasted around ten years, continues.
UBS shares up
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UBS shares are clearly trending higher in the afternoon. The share gained 1.8 percent to 22.47 francs at around 3:45 p.m., while the SMI was little changed. At the peak – shortly after the verdict was announced – the shares even rose to 22.83 francs (+3.3 percent).
Investigations by the French authorities began in 2013. In February 2019, UBS was sentenced for the first time by the Paris criminal court to a hefty payment totaling 4.5 billion euros for illicit financial transactions and aiding and abetting money laundering.
In December 2021, the bank was also found guilty in the second instance: The French appeal court found that UBS had illegally solicited rich French taxpayers between 2004 and 2012. The judgment said that she wanted to persuade customers to open undeclared accounts in Switzerland.