Swiss bank UBS is poised to reenter a French courtroom in an attempt to overturn a $5 billion fine and a guilty verdict.
Starting at 1:30 p.m. CET on Monday a Paris courtroom, the Zurich-based wealth manager starts fighting over billions in an appeal to its 2019 criminal conviction. The appeal is scheduled to run until March 24, in a closely-watched case that is expected to set precedent for other Swiss wealth managers.
It is hard to overstate the importance of the French trial for UBS: besides the huge financial impact, the case caused shareholders to deny the Swiss bank's top management and board a key backing two years ago. UBS is pulling out all the stops in its efforts to overturn a February 2019 guilty verdict and lower a 4.5 billion euro ($5 billion) fine.
Glimmers Of Hope
The Swiss wealth manager has reserved 450 million euros against a potential fine. After years of legal wrangling under chief lawyer Markus Diethelm, UBS has two specific glimmers of hope in the feud: The first is that French prosecutors may not submit data on some 40,000 erstwhile UBS clients as evidence.
The second is that UBS may not face as financially harsh of a penalty as it did in the initial judicial go-around, according to Swiss daily «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (behind paywall, in German). A precedent-setting French ruling in a separate 2019 case calculates penalties according to taxes withheld, and not on total incriminating funds.
