U.S. sues UBS to disclose secret accounts

UBS accused of fraud

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. government Thursday sued UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, to force the firm to give the Internal Revenue Service secret account information on thousands of accounts believed to be worth nearly $15 billion.

The suit comes only one day after the Justice Department announced an agreement in which UBS promised to provide secret account information.

However, it appears only a small number of accounts may have been included in that agreement.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Miami says that as many as 52,000 U.S. customers had secret UBS accounts to allegedly hide holdings from the IRS. About 32,000 of the accounts contained cash and 20,000 contained securities, it said.

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that UBS had agreed to pay $780 million in fines and restitution, and to turn over the account information. The agreement was approved by a federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The department cited a ruling by Swiss authorities that forced the bank to make the "unprecedented" disclosure of names of account holders, and it promised to drop a criminal charge against the bank if it complied with all terms of the agreement.

UBS (UBS) Wednesday issued a statement in which Chairman Peter Kurer said, "We are firmly committed to the terms of the settlement agreements we have reached" with both the Justice Department and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

But after the lawsuit seeking additional names was filed Thursday, UBS issued a statement saying that it will "vigorously contest" enforcement of the IRS summons in the suit, and that contesting the summons is permitted under the agreement announced Wednesday.

"The IRS's 'John Doe' summons seeks information regarding a substantial number of undisclosed accounts maintained by U.S. persons at UBS in Switzerland, whose information is protected from disclosure by Swiss financial privacy laws," said the new UBS statement.

The IRS on Wednesday issued a statement warning the U.S. customers of the bank that they would be pursued if they did not step forward and pay what they owed.