Financial Transparency Coalition

Last week was not kind to tax evaders. Liechtenstein agreed an information-sharing treaty with the UK that, should it serve as a model for the principality’s deals with other countries, would put it out of the tax-haven business. The OECD recognised the Cayman and British Virgin Islands as having implemented the organisation’s tax standards. The US forced more names of suspected tax evaders out of Swiss bank UBS. The war on tax piracy is making progress.

The U.S. crackdown on clients of UBS AG is widening into a global hunt, with the government detailing in court documents how the Swiss bank and outside advisers helped Americans hide money using enterprises set up in Hong Kong.

WASHINGTON — A deal with Switzerland settling U.S. demands for the names of suspected tax dodgers from a Swiss bank has a lot of wealthy Americans with offshore accounts nervously running to their tax advisers — and the Internal Revenue Service.

Federal prosecutors are building criminal cases against 150 wealthy American clients of the Swiss banking giant UBS as part of a continuing investigation into tax evasion, a person briefed on the matter said Thursday.