(Bloomberg) -- UBS Group AG is close to making a settlement in the hundreds of millions of dollars over violations by Credit Suisse of a decade-old agreement with the US Department of Justice related to tax evasion, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The settlement could come as soon as this week, the Journal reported Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter. UBS declined to comment.
Following a guilty plea in 2014 on conspiring to help US citizens evade taxes, Credit Suisse was obliged to inform authorities on its progress in closing accounts and the destination of funds, the newspaper said. Credit Suisse earlier paid $2.6 billion in fines to the US, but failing to carry out the follow-up actions left it open to further penalties.
UBS is working through a list of legacy legal issues inherited from Credit Suisse, which it bought in an emergency rescue in 2023. The Zurich-based bank has some $4 billion in provisions set aside for litigation and related issues, and the bank’s shares, trading at 2008 highs, were little changed after the report.
The amount to be paid by UBS could be about $200 million, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence.
UBS said in its third-quarter report that it had a provision for potential costs tied to inquiries into its cross-border wealth management services, including the Credit Suisse’s compliance with the 2014 plea deal. It didn’t disclose an amount for the provision.
UBS reached a settlement with Mozambique in 2023 over the so-called tuna-boat scandal, in which Credit Suisse was alleged to have engaged in corrupt practices around the financing of a fishing fleet. In the same year, UBS agreed to pay $1.44 billion to settle a long running case of its own in the US, related to mortgage backed securities.
--With assistance from Michael J. Moore.
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