First U.S. citizen arrested in UBS tax evasion case

A wealthy client of UBS AG today became the first U.S. citizen to be arrested for tax evasion stemming from an investigation into secret offshore accounts at the Zurich, Switzerland, bank. Michael Steven Rubinstein, a 55-year old yacht company accountant, was charged with one criminal count of filing a false and fraudulent tax return in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. According to court papers, Mr. Rubinstein deposited more than $2 million in Kruggerand gold coins into his UBS accounts and bought securities worth more than 4.5 million Swiss francs through the accounts from 2001 to 2008. UBS is under criminal investigation for helping U. S. citizens hide nearly $20 billion and evade taxes through secret offshore accounts that went unreported to the Internal Revenue Service. In February UBS admitted to conspiracy to defraud the IRS and paid $780 million to settle the charges. Federal prosecutors say Mr. Rubinstein is the first U.S. citizen to be criminally charged in the UBS case. Judge Barry Seltzer ordered Rubinstein held in jail until a hearing next week.