French judges have ordered UBS to pay a record €3.7bn ($4.2bn) fine for helping wealthy clients in France evade taxes, as Switzerland’s largest bank struggles to turn the page on legal entanglements stemming from its core wealth management business.
Judges in Paris found the Zurich-based bank guilty of illegally recruiting clients in France and helping them to launder money that was not declared to French fiscal authorities. In handing down the largest-ever fine in France, the judges described the lender’s crimes as “exceptionally serious.”