A Swiss banker has few regrets about racking up a criminal record for shipping data on recalcitrant Americans to U.S. tax officials.
«I’m a spy now, but I certainly don’t work for the CIA,» Martin Egli told «Tages-Anzeiger» (behind paywall, in German) in an interview on Tuesday. The Swiss banker was referring to his conviction in Switzerland of acting on behalf of a foreign country.
Egli was found guilty of in 2013 passing on data on 109 American clients of Swisspartners, which he ran at the time, to U.S. prosecutors. Switzerland and the U.S. were then at the apex of a years-long dispute over untaxed money held in offshore accounts.
Running Counter To Peers
In passing on the data, the 69-year-old ran counter to most Swiss bankers, who sought to shield themselves and their institutes from U.S. pursuit. It also made Egli something of a pariah among his Paradeplatz peers, many of whom were in the throes of U.S. justice themselves.
Egli himself seems to have been of two minds about whether to hand over the data, ordering two outside legal views on whether it would be permissible to do so. Eight years later, he tells «Tages-Anzeiger» that the move was the right one for Swisspartners’ clientele.
Widening U.S. Investigation
Surprisingly, most of the 109 are still clients of Swisspartners despite being «outed» in 2013, Egli noted. «None of them later had trouble with U.S. justice officials,» he told the Swiss daily.
He said he believes Swisspartners was one of the first Swiss firms to make American clients aware that they needed to come clean to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Thousands of Americans did so – feeding an U.S. investigation which continues to this day.
«Extraordinary Cooperation»
Convictions like Egli's of article 271 of Switzerland’s criminal code – spying for a foreign country – are exceedingly rare. After a round of appeals, his conviction was upheld earlier this month and he was ordered to pay an 10,000 Swiss franc ($10,900) fine, plus court costs.
The firm, Swisspartners, in 2014 paid $4.4 million to settle criminal charges brought by then-Southern District prosecutor Preet Bharara. The firm was lauded by U.S. officials for «extraordinary cooperation…has enabled us to identify U.S. tax cheats who have hidden behind phony offshore trusts and foundations.»
