UBS to Pay Nearly $1 Billion to Settle Longrunning French Tax Case — Update
By Aimee Look
UBS Group said it would pay out 835 million euros ($985.6 million) in France to resolve a longrunning case over its role in helping wealthy clients evade taxes.
The Swiss bank said Tuesday that the case stemmed from activities in the country between 2004 and 2012. UBS agreed to pay 730 million euros in fines and 105 million euros in civil damages to the French state, and is fully provisioned for the case, it said.
"The resolution of this legacy case is in line with UBS's intention to resolve such matters in the best interests of all its stakeholders," the bank said in a statement.
The nearly $1 billion penalty comes after a yearslong legal battle between the French courts and Zurich-based UBS, one of the world's largest wealth managers.
UBS was initially ordered to pay a 3.7 billion-euro fine in 2019 and 800 million euros in damages, after French judges said the bank was guilty of illegally recruiting clients and helping them launder money in France.
The initial trial detailed Switzerland-based bankers illegally recruiting clients in France at elite functions like the opera or sporting events. UBS denied wrongdoing in court in 2019, said the conviction wasn't supported by concrete evidence, and subsequently appealed the decision.
In 2021, the French Court of Appeal rejected the bank's appeal but lowered the fine to 3.75 million euros, plus a confiscation of 1 billion euros and 800 million euros in civil damages to the state.
The case landed in France's Supreme Court in 2023, which upheld the guilty verdict against UBS but sent the case back to a lower court for a retrial to consider a $2 billion penalty the bank had been facing.
The 2023 decision in France's highest court couldn't be appealed, and UBS said it would continue to defend itself and that it had followed applicable laws and regulations at all times.
UBS and former employees have been under investigation in France since 2013. The bank previously admitted to wrongdoing in helping Americans evade taxes, reaching a $780 million settlement and turning over the names of thousands of secret account-holders to avoid criminal charges.
Write to Aimee Look at aimee.look@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 23, 2025 06:52 ET (10:52 GMT)
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