U.S. prosecutors are expected to approach UBS with a subpoena for the names of rich American clients who may have used the Swiss bank's services to skirt income taxes, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday, citing lawyers and others involved in the case.
The subpoena would follow the unsealing of a grand jury indictment on Tuesday in Florida federal court, of former UBS private banker Bradley Birkenfeld and Liechtenstein businessman Mario Staggl, the report said.
The one-count indictment charged Birkenfeld and Staggl with conspiring to defraud the United States by helping an unidentified U.S. citizen create bogus corporations and other entities to conceal his ownership of hidden offshore assets, according to an earlier statement from prosecutors.
Officials of UBS and the Internal Revenue Service could not be reached immediately for comment.