U.S. presses tax evasion case against UBS
Justice Department in five-month-old lawsuit to force Swiss bank to identify thousands of U.S. secret account holders.
MIAMI (Reuters) -- The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday it was pursuing its five-month-old lawsuit against UBS AG to force the Swiss bank to identify thousands of U.S. clients with secret accounts at the Swiss bank.
"The United States has a strong national interest in making sure that all U.S. taxpayers comply with the tax laws, including disclosing their offshore accounts, and paying all the taxes they owe," the department said in a brief filed with a Florida court.
The U.S. government sued UBS in February in the U.S. Southern District Court of Florida, seeking the names of 52,000 Americans suspected of using the bank to hide nearly $15 billion in assets and evade U.S. taxes.
"The United States has proven its case for enforcement. The court should order UBS to comply in full," the department said in its brief.
No representative of UBS was immediately available to comment on the brief, but a court hearing has been scheduled for July 13.
The case is: United States v UBS AG; 1:09-CV-20423. 
