The Department of Justice (DOJ), UBS and Switzerland have requested a stay with a rescheduled hearing date of Aug. 3, 2009, in the proceedings for enforcement of the summons ordering UBS to turn over records of account holders. The stay was requested in order to provide the parties additional time to discuss a possible alternative resolution of the matter.
The parties have agreed that any alternative resolution reached would necessarily include a provision requiring UBS to provide the Internal Revenue Service information on a significant number of individuals with UBS accounts. If an alternative resolution is not reached, the Department of Justice will continue to vigorously pursue enforcement of the summons through the court.
In February, the DOJ sued UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, to force them to reveal the identities of about 52,000 U.S. customers who are alleged to have hidden their Swiss accounts from the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.), The DOJ alleges that as many as 32,940 secret accounts containing cash and 20,877 accounts holding securities were held in Swiss accounts holding about $14.8 billion in assets.