american clients

The U.S. Justice Department called Switzerland's largest private bank a fugitive from justice on Friday after it didn't send any representatives to a court hearing in New York, where it has been charged with conspired with American clients to hide $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service.

Swiss bank UBS AG will inform American clients whether their bank accounts are among the 4,450 that will be revealed to the U.S.

Justice Department in a tax evasion investigation.

The United States is building criminal cases against more than 150 American clients of Swiss bank UBS as part of a crackdown on tax evasion now made easier by a deal over access to secret account information.

A federal judge has given Switzerland and the United States more time to try to settle a legal case that sought to force the Swiss banking giant UBS to disclose the names of wealthy American clients suspected of tax evasion.

Switzerland and the United States were working to reach an agreement to settle a legal case that sought to force UBS to disclose the names of American clients suspected of tax evasion.

Switzerland and the United States reached an agreement in principle on Friday to settle out of court a closely watched case that seeks to force the Swiss banking giant UBS to turn over the names of wealthy American clients suspected of tax evasion, a lawyer for the government said.

Switzerland's government said Wednesday it would forbid the Swiss bank UBS AG from complying with any court-ordered transfer of data on tens of thousands of American clients to the U.S. government, and would consider seizing documents to prevent that.

Credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Service on Monday said it will review whether to lower key ratings for UBS AG, the huge Swiss bank that has been hit hard by the financial crisis and a U.S. legal probe into its American clients' offshore accounts.