Financial Transparency Coalition

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. grand jury indicted on Thursday a Swiss lawyer accused of aiding a man identified as having an account at London-based HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) evade taxes, the latest in a widening probe into foreign banks that might have helped U.S. clients avoid paying tax.

WASHINGTON – The former ABN AMRO Bank N.V., now named the Royal Bank of Scotland N.V., has agreed to forfeit $500 million to the United States in connection with a conspiracy to defraud the United States, to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and to violate the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA), as well as a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., for the District of Columbia.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated Colombian money launderers Maria Mercedes Jimenez Urrego and Jorge Enrique Jimenez Urrego as drug kingpins due to their significant roles in international narcotics trafficking on behalf of drug trafficking organizations, including the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). OFAC also today named 17 other individuals and 12 entities as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs). Today's action, OFAC's 13th against the FARC and its support networks, was taken pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act), which prohibits U.S. persons...

MIAMI, May 3 (Reuters) - A former private banker at Julius Baer (BAER.VX), who alleges the Swiss bank knowingly helped rich clients dodge taxes, said on Monday that U.S. clients have long paid a premium for Swiss firms' tax advantages.