Swiss bank UBS last night asked a US court not to proceed with a high-profile tax evasion case brought against it by the US Internal Revenue Service, saying the case would violate Switzerland's strict bank secrecy laws.
'The petition should be denied,' Switzerland's largest bank said in a filing to a federal court in Florida.
US tax authorities are pursuing a civil lawsuit against UBS seeking to access the data of 52,000 Americans it says are hiding about $14.8 billion in assets in Swiss bank accounts.
'Despite the clear historical record, the IRS now asks this Court to force a Swiss financial institution and its employees, over the express objection of the Swiss Government, to violate Swiss law by producing a massive quantity of confidential account information located exclusively in Switzerland,' UBS said in its filing.
