Julius Baer has resolved its Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to settle liability in connection with its US cross-border private banking business.
In 2016, the Swiss bank agreed to pay $547m (£422m, €482m) and settle tax evasion allegations, after it was one of a group of banks investigated by the DoJ in 2011.
It has now fulfilled its obligations under the DPA, and the US Attorney’s Office for the southern district of New York filed a motion to dismiss the charges.
Bernhard Hodler, chief executive of Julius Baer, said: “This important step confirms Julius Baer’s approach to cooperating constructively with competent authorities and our commitment to fulfill our regulatory obligations and responsibilities.”
Under the agreement in 2016, it admitted to having conspired to hide up to $4.7bn in assets for American clients from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), file false federal income tax returns and evade federal income taxes.
US crackdown
Within the last decade, the US carried out a big crackdown on offshore tax evasion by wealthy Americans utilising undeclared Swiss bank accounts.
Alongside Julius Baer; Credit Suisse and UBS paid fines of $2.6bn and $780m, respectively, to settle their investigations.
Many smaller Swiss banks have avoided prosecution by voluntarily disclosing their wrongdoing as part of a separate DoJ programme, where total penalties stand at about $1.4bn.
