The sanction against the Swiss Bank has been revised downwardly. But it remains, by far, the highest fine for the financial sector in France.
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The Union of Swiss Banks (UBS) was sentenced, Monday, December 13, to 1.8 billion euros for fined for aggravated tax fraud and unlawful banking in France between 2004 and 2012.
This sanction is significantly lower than the one pronounced at first instance (4.5 billion euros), as it takes into account the fact that, unlike other fiscal evasion scandals, no certainty. could be highlighted regarding the amount of evaded assets. Impossible, therefore, to apply the rule that the fine can go up to half of the funds on which the bleaching operations were carried out. Result: A fixed sanction of 3.75 million euros was retained against UBS, while its French subsidiary was sentenced to € 1.87 million for the complicity of illegal banking.
In front of the magnitude of fraud, the judges, however, confiscated the billion retained by justice as a deposit, and added 800 million damages for the State, bringing the total penalties at more than 1.8 billion euros. This amount remains the largest ever demanded in France against a financial sector actor.
This sanction in a tax evasion folder, the only one to which UBS is condemned after a trial (the bank had until Negotiate), however, is quite low in view of the penalties that can be inflicted abroad, especially in the United States, where the average of the first ten fines issued by the financial regulators exceeds $ 10 billion (about 9 billion euros ).