Michele Bergantino, Tax Fraud, Virginia 2024

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A former Swiss banker has been convicted of helping U.S. taxpayers evade income taxes. Michele Bergantino, 48, a citizen of Italy and a resident of Switzerland, pleaded guilty today to charges related to the aiding and assisting U.S. taxpayers in evading their income taxes during his employment as a banker working for Credit Suisse AG on its North American desk.

Hiding assets and creating secret accounts in an attempt to evade income taxes is a losing game. Said Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Today’s plea shows that we will continue to prosecute bankers and U.S. citizens who engage in this criminal activity. I want to thank our law enforcement partners and prosecutors for their work on this important case.

According to the statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Bergantino admitted that from 2002 to 2009, while working as a relationship manager for Credit Suisse in Switzerland, he participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to aid and assist U.S. taxpayers in evading their income taxes by concealing assets and income in secret Swiss bank accounts. Bergantino oversaw a portfolio of accounts, largely owned by U.S. taxpayers residing on the West Coast, which grew to approximately $700 million of assets under management.

Bergantino admitted that the tax loss associated with his criminal conduct was more than $1.5 million but less than or equal to $3.5 million. Mr. Bergantino is now the third fugitive to come to the United States and plead guilty to charges in this case, said Caroline D. Ciraolo, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. To those who have actively assisted U.S. taxpayers in using offshore accounts to evade taxes, the message is clear: staying outside the United States will provide little comfort. We will investigate and charge you, and will work relentlessly to hold you to account for your actions.

During his time as a relationship manager, Bergantino assisted many U.S. clients in utilizing their Credit Suisse accounts to evade their U.S. income taxes and to facilitate concealment of the U.S clients’ undeclared financial accounts from the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Among the steps taken by Bergantino to assist clients in hiding their Swiss accounts were the following: assuring them that Swiss bank secrecy laws would prevent Credit Suisse from disclosing their undeclared accounts to U.S. law enforcement; by discussing business with clients only when they traveled to Zurich to meet him; structuring withdrawals from their undeclared accounts by sending multiple checks, each in amounts below $10,000, to clients in the United States; facilitating the withdrawal of large sums of cash by U.S. customers from their Credit Suisse accounts at Credit Suisse offices in the Bahamas, in Switzerland, particularly the Credit Suisse branch at the Zurich airport and at a financial institution in the United Kingdom; holding clients’ mail from delivery to the United States; issuing withdrawal checks from Credit Suisse’s correspondent bank in the United States; and taking actions to remove evidence of a U.S. client’s control over an account because the U.S. client intended to file a false and fraudulent income tax return.

Today’s plea of Michele Bergantino is another example of IRS-Criminal Investigation’s (CI) dedication to bringing individuals to justice who engage in helping U.S. taxpayers evade their tax obligations, said Richard Weber, Chief of IRS-Criminal Investigation. We will continue our global efforts to vigorously pursue both U.S. taxpayers who avoid paying their fair share and the unscrupulous professionals who facilitate their actions.

Michele Bergantino, a former Swiss banker, pleaded guilty to charges related to aiding U.S. taxpayers in evading their income taxes. He will face sentencing at a later date. The exact date of sentencing was not provided in the press release.

The defendant, Michele Bergantino, was a citizen of Italy and a resident of Switzerland. He worked as a relationship manager for Credit Suisse in Switzerland. The charges against him include aiding and assisting U.S. taxpayers in evading their income taxes. The tax loss associated with his criminal conduct was more than $1.5 million but less than or equal to $3.5 million. He pleaded guilty to the charges in a federal court in Alexandria, Va.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/former-swiss-banker-pleads-guilty-tax-fraud