Former UBS executive found not guilty in Florida tax cheating trial

FORT LAUDERDALE Fla. (Reuters) – A former top banker who headed global wealth management at UBS AG (UBSN.VX ) (UBS.N ) was found not guilty on Monday in South Florida federal court of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

Raoul Weil, the highest-ranking Swiss banker to stand trial in the United States, was accused of conspiring to help wealthy U.S. tax cheats hide $20 billion in assets in secret offshore accounts.

The jury took only 75 minutes to reach its verdict after a three-week trial that ended abruptly on Monday when Weil’s defense team decided not to call any witnesses, saying the government had failed to make its case.

The defense team jumped up in joy as the verdict was read. Weil, 54, held his sobbing wife in a lengthy embrace.

“The jury sent a strong message to the government. This case should never have been brought,” said Weil’s lawyer, Matthew Menchel.

Weil declined to comment upon leaving the courthouse.

Weil was arrested in October 2013 while on vacation with his wife at an upscale hotel in the northern Italian city of Bologna. He pleaded not guilty last year after being extradited to the United States.

The trial pitted Weil against several former UBS colleagues who chose to cooperate with U.S. authorities in exchange for favorable sentencing. They testified about using numerous James Bond-like tactics to avoid detection while in the United States, and to help U.S. clients keep their accounts hidden from tax authorities.

During his closing argument, Menchel said the prosecution’s case rested on the testimony of ex-employees of UBS who were more guilty of crimes than Weil.

“Who are the real criminals here?” Menchel said “Who should be getting punished instead of getting sweetheart deals?” he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Poole told the jury that Weil knew what he was doing was wrong and orchestrated efforts by UBS to circumvent U.S. tax law.

“Mr. Weil was aware and participated in helping UBS U.S. clients cheat on their taxes,” Poole said. “That was the business model.”

The Weil verdict was the second trial loss for the Justice Department in a offshore tax case in a matter of days.

On Friday, a federal jury in Los Angeles acquitted Shokrollah Baravarian, a former senior vice president at the local branch of Israel’s Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, of conspiring to help U.S. clients defraud the IRS through the opening of secret foreign bank accounts.

During cross examination of government witnesses, Weil’s attorney sought to show the illegal activity was conducted by people below his client and that the U.S. cross border business was a tiny fraction of his overall responsibilities.

If convicted, Weil faced up to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit tax fraud.

The United States in recent years has stepped up its pursuit of Swiss banks for their role in aiding tax evasion and has increasingly pressured individual bankers.

In 2009 UBS admitted to helping U.S. taxpayers hide money and paid a $780 million fine. Credit Suisse pleaded guilty in May to a U.S. criminal charge and will pay more than $2.5 billion in penalties.

UBS is also under investigation in France and Germany over whether it helped wealthy individuals there dodge taxes.

(Reporting by Francisco Alvarado- additional reporting by Nate Raymond- writing by David Adams- Editing by Matthew Lewis and Dan Grebler)