ZURICH (dpa-AFX) - UBS (UBS) said that, after six weeks of hearings before the 32nd Chamber of the Paris Court of First Instance, the judges delivered an adverse judgment against UBS AG and UBS (France) SA on Wednesday. In a French criminal proceeding, the court must have unequivocally convincing evidence to bring a verdict against a defendant. The court's judgment fails this test.
UBS reiterated that it consistently contested any criminal wrongdoing in this case. The bank respected and followed its obligations under Swiss and French law as well as the European Tax Savings Directive. UBS has already announced and filed its appeal of the verdict.
The conviction is not supported by any concrete evidence. In addition, following a detailed review of the judgment, it is clear that the decision contains significant flaws that will need to be addressed by the Court of Appeals, UBS said.
According to UBS, the judgment is extremely superficial, inconsistent and contradictory. It does not address the vast majority of legal and factual arguments made by UBS. The judgment makes legal errors and draws conclusions of guilt based on assumptions that are mistaken; The calculation of the fine is contradictory; calculation of the civil damages is completely unsupported.
On Wednesday, UBS said that the French trial court issued its judgment on the cross-border matter finding UBS AG guilty and UBS (France) SA of illicit solicitation and laundering of the proceeds of tax fraud and assessed a penalty of 3.7 billion euros and 15 million euros respectively and civil damages of 800 million euros.
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