150 American UBS Clients May Face Criminal Charges: Report

(Reuters) - 150 American clients of UBS are likely to face criminal charges related to tax evasion in the United States, the New York Times reported, citing a person briefed on the matter.
The person told the paper that several inquiries across the country were being handled by dozens of prosecutors and would result in criminal complaints.
The paper said it was unclear where the U.S. government got the client names from.
In February, UBS agreed to pay $780 million and to hand over data relating to about 250 U.S. clients to settle criminal charges it was facing under a tax dispute with the U.S. government.
Earlier this week, the U.S. and Swiss governments agreed to settle a dispute over whether the Swiss bank should be forced to disclose the names of 52,000 rich U.S. clients suspected of tax evasion.
However, the parties did not disclose details of the deal.
The New York Times, citing another person close to the matter, said the U.S. Justice Department's criteria for seeking disclosure of names of UBS clients included clients who set up offshore entities to evade taxes and those who had contact with Swiss-based UBS bankers, in person, by telephone or by email.
Accounts over a certain dollar amount would be included, the paper said.
A UBS spokesman in Hong Kong could not be immediately reached for comment.
(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore, editing by Will Waterman)