The oldest private bank in Switzerland has been closed. A long history finished for tax evasion

A 250 years lasting history is closing in the most inglorious way. And if a Swiss private bank closes, the news goes around the world. An investigation by the IRS forced the doors of Wegelin& Co to close down, thanks to a long investigation, able to demonstrate how the bank had helped some wealthy U.S. citizens to evade taxes through secret accounts.
The investigation focused on a period of ten years during which the leaders of Wegelin have enabled their clients to evade the IRS taxes on $ 1.2 billion of income. The agreement reached with the U.S. authorities is providing the payment by means of a compensation.

All this was made possible on the basis of an agreement signed between the U.S. and Switzerland, which had allowed to find some tax evaders among the depositors of UBS, an operation that cost a $ 780 million fine to the bank in Switzerland and the delivery of a list of 4,450 U.S. customers who were trying to escape capital abroad.

A similar agreement was made with the bilateral agreements between Switzerland and several European countries, including Germany, France and Italy, although the coming back amount of money is still the subject of a dispute between the Italian parties.