Former UBS banker charged in tax evasion case

Staggl, owner of New Haven Trust Co. Ltd in Leichtenstein, is still in that country and is not under arrest, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, UBS offered to hide the accounts of wealthy Americans, meaning their assets would not be reported to U.S. authorities as required under a 2001 agreement.

"The cornerstone to the defendants' pitch was that Swiss and Leichtenstein bank secrecy was impenetrable," Miami U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in a statement.

The Swiss bank told the IRS it was honoring its disclosure agreement with the U.S. But in fact, Birkenfeld and Staggl were helping Olenicoff -identified as "I.O." in the indictment -prepare false documents, advising him to destroy all foreign bank records and assisted in preparing false tax returns, the indictment claims.

The advice included setting up entities in the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Panama, Denmark and elsewhere to hide assets, prosecutors claim. Olenicoff was told to transfer ownership of his 147-foot yacht from the U.S. to Gilbraltar.

UBS said earlier this month that the Securities and Exchange Commission is examining whether any of its bankers failed to receive U.S. regulatory approval to act as broker dealers or investment advisers.

An SEC spokesman declined to comment.

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AP Business Writer Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.