Former UBS banker charged in tax evasion case

The former UBS executive, 43-year-old Bradley Birkenfeld, and 43-year-old Mario Staggl of Liechtenstein are charged with a single count of conspiring to defraud the United States by creating fictitious trusts, bogus corporations and other false entities to hide some $200 million in assets. They each face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Birkenfeld, a U.S. citizen, was employed by UBS from 2001 to 2006 and worked as a director in the company's private banking division.

UBS said earlier this month in a regulatory filing that the Justice Department is investigating whether it helped clients evade U.S. taxes between 2000 and 2007.

A senior manager was briefly detained in the United States in connection with the probe, UBS said May 7.

In an e-mailed statement Tuesday, the bank said it is "continuing to cooperate" with the Justice Department but declined to comment on the charges. The federal indictment was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, based in Ft. Lauderdale.

Real estate developer Igor Olenicoff of Newport Beach, Calif., pleaded guilty last year to filing a false tax return and paid the Internal Revenue Service more than $52 million in back taxes, penalties and interest.

Olenicoff, whose fortune is estimated at $1.6 billion by Forbes magazine, was sentenced to two years' probation and is not charged in the new indictment. His company has large commercial and residential real estate holdings in California, South Florida and elsewhere.

Olenicoff's attorney in California, Edward M. Robbins Jr., said his client had no comment.

Birkenfeld made his initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, where he pleaded not guilty. It was not immediately clear if he had hired an attorney.