France issues warrants for three former UBS bosses in tax-dodgers’ Swiss account inquiry

French judges have issued arrest warrants for three former top managers of Swiss bank UBS, suspected of encouraging French nationals dodge taxes by opening secret bank accounts. Last year they demanded a record bail of 1.1 billion euros from the bank in a case of alleged money-laundering the fruits of tax evasion.

UBS offices in Zurich Reuters

The judges issued the warrants in January, sources have told the AFP news agency, after the three, who live in Switzerland, failed to respond to summonses to be questioned over

accusations that the bank solicited clients for tax-evasion schemes.

One was UBS’s head of asset management for western Europe, the other two were responsible for France, a source said.

In 2013 UBS was charged with illicitly seeking tax-dodging clients and in 2014 with “aggravated money-laundering of the fruits of tax evasion” between

2004 and 2012, leading to the record bail demand.

Investigators have benefited from tip-offs by former UBS employees, including an anonymous note that appears to show a system of double-bookkeeping that allowed the recording of undeclared accounts in Switzerland through bank representatives touting for business in France.