U.S. Obtains Data From 10 Swiss Banks In Tax-Dodging Probe

ZURICH - U.S. authorities now have statistical data from the ten Swiss banks being investigated by the United States for helping U.S. clients to dodge taxes, Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung reported on Saturday.

TagesAnzeiger, another Swiss newspaper, reported that the Swiss banks now had until Sept 23 to hand over more specific client data.

Credit Suisse , which is one of the banks under investigation, had already handed over data earlier in the week, while the nine other banks had handed over the data through an intermediary on Friday, NZZ said without citing any sources.

The newspaper also said the Swiss government had given them "plenty of rope" to do this.

Mario Tuor, spokesman for the Swiss department for international financial affairs, declined to comment on the NZZ and TagesAnzeiger reports, but he said: "We are still going for a solution on the basis of existing legal rules in Switzerland."

Late on Friday, Reuters reported that the United States was drafting legal documents, seeking to force nearly a dozen Swiss banks and international banks with Swiss branches to disclose the identities of American clients that evaded taxes.
 

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