Between 2004 and 2012, the bank had illegally helped French clients hide billions of euros from French tax authorities, a court in Paris found. Moreover, besides the fine of EUR 3.7 billion, UBS has also been ordered to pay damages of EUR 800 million payable to the French state.
UBS said it had consistently contested any criminal wrongdoing and would appeal against the verdict, according to BBC. However, the French prosecutors had previously told the court UBS was ‘systematic’ in its support of tax-evading customers and that the laundering of proceeds from the tax fraud was done on an ‘industrial’ scale, the online publication continues.
Following a similar case in the US, in 2009 UBS paid a settlement of USD 780 million and in 2014 it agreed to a USD 300 million fine in Germany.
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