A wealthy accountant who is the first U.S. citizen charged in a wide-ranging tax probe of Swiss banking giant UBS AG was released from jail Wednesday on $12 million bail.
A wealthy accountant who is the first U.S. citizen charged in a wide-ranging tax probe of Swiss banking giant UBS AG was released from jail Wednesday on $12 million bail.
Federal prosecutor Jeffrey Neiman said the unusually large amount was necessary because of the high risk that Steven Michael Rubinstein might flee the country. Rubinstein, 55, is also a citizen of South Africa and owns a condominium in Israel besides his main home in Boca Raton.
U.S. Magistrate Barry Seltzer also ordered Rubinstein to a dusk-to-dawn home curfew, wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet and travel only within South Florida. He agreed to surrender keys to a 45-foot boat docked outside his home and gave up his U.S. and South African passports.
Rubinstein is scheduled to enter a plea April 22 to charges of filing a false 2007 tax return by failing to disclose income from his UBS accounts, which carries a maximum three-year prison sentence. The Internal Revenue Service claims Rubinstein failed to report UBS income on his returns from 2001 to 2007, but he is only charged so far for the 2007 return.
Rubinstein's attorney, Robert Panoff, said his client sought credible professional advice for his financial affairs and that he isn't guilty of a crime. Rubinstein works for an international yacht business based on Coral Springs.
"I think when more of the facts are seen, a different interpretation is there," Panoff said.
Rubinstein's name was among the roughly 300 American account holders turned over to U.S. authorities by UBS in a deal that also required the Swiss bank to pay $780 million in fines and restitution. In a separate lawsuit filed in Miami, the IRS seeks the identities of another 52,000 UBS customers suspected of using bank secrecy to shield assets from U.S. taxes. UBS is contesting the lawsuit.
Rubinstein is accused of creating a shell corporation in the British Virgin Islands in 2001 to conceal his ownership of the UBS account, which he then used to finance construction of a multimillion-dollar Florida home, deposit some $2 million in Krugerrand gold coins and make numerous investments. In all, prosecutors say he hid some $6 million with UBS.
Handcuffed and wearing tan prison garb, the balding and bespectacled Rubinstein provided some details of his U.S. assets. They include the Boca Raton home worth up to $6 million; an $800,000 condo near Tel Aviv, Israel; two condos in Boca worth $1 million combined; numerous bank and brokerage accounts; a pair of Mercedes-Benz cars and a leased Lincoln Navigator.
Rubinstein also said he and his wife of nine years have three small children.
"Have you ever been arrested before?" Seltzer asked.
"Never, your honor," Rubinstein said in a soft South African accent.
