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Former UBS France CEO Patrick de Fayet at the Paris Court House with his lawyer, October 8, 2018. REUTERS / Benoit Tessier
The Swiss bank UBS is suspected of having "poached" a rich French clientele and of having collected undeclared assets of billions of euros. From the beginning of the trial, Monday, October 8, defense lawyers have multiplied priority issues of constitutionality.
At the opening of the hearing before the Criminal Court of Paris, Monday, October 8, eight dark costumes advance to the bar. Eight French and Swiss UBS bankers with graying hair who appear for having solicited French customers and have subtracted their income from the tax authorities. Justice assesses the assets concerned at 10 billion euros.
But the defense, solidly endowed with the best tax experts of the Paris Bar, denounces an unfair procedure, a trial in witchcraft somehow. " There is an assumption that the Swiss bank is guilty of complicity in tax fraud, " insists Denis Chemla, UBS lawyer.
For him, " we forget only that the tax problem is the problem of the customer. French banks do not check the tax status of their clients. No bank in the world checks the tax status of their customers. Nobody asks clients every year to send their tax returns. The law does not require banks to check the tax status of their customers, he insists. They make a bad trial for me . "
The hearings must last six weeks. But the trial has been suspended until Thursday, the time of consideration of priority issues of constitutionality, which could result in a postponement of the trial. The defendants face up to five years in prison, but the UBS bank, if found guilty of laundering tax fraud, could be fined several billion euros.