Seattle-area man latest to plead guilty in federal probe of Swiss banking giant UBS

Seattle-area man pleads guilty in Swiss bank case

SEATTLE — A retired Boeing Co. sales manager is the latest of about half a dozen people to accept plea agreements in a federal investigation of tax-evasion schemes involving the Swiss banking giant UBS.

Roberto Cittadini of Bellevue, about 68, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to filing a false tax return, admitting that he concealed nearly $1.9 million in Swiss bank accounts which he did not report on tax returns for 2001-03 and on which he failed to report income. U.S. Magistrate Mary Alice Theiler allowed him to remain free on personal recognizance.

UBS accepted deferred prosecution in February, admitting that bank officials helped U.S. taxpayers hide their accounts from the Internal Revenue Service. Since then, five UBS clients have pleaded guilty to various charges, and a sixth guilty plea is expected.

“This is a time of reckoning for those who thought they had found a safe haven for cheating,” U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said in a statement.

“Individuals all over the country who are hiding income and assets in offshore accounts would be well-advised to promptly come in and come clean before the government learns about their accounts through other channels,” said John A DiCicco, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Tax Division in Washington.

Cittadini faces up to three years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a civil penalty based on his highest account balance between 2001 and 2008 when he is sentenced Jan. 8.

Government lawyers agreed to consider recommending lower penalties than provided under sentencing guidelines. Cittadini promised to cooperate with authorities investigating “other individuals involved in criminal activity” and acknowledged that the deal, which was filed in court, may be nullified if he gives information or testimony that is “untruthful or incomplete in any way.”

In court proceedings and filings, authorities said Cittadini opened a UBS account in the early 1990s and was helped by Hansruedi Schumaker, a Swiss banker, to transfer those assets to an account held in the name of Mataropa Finance Ltd., a less transparent Hong Kong nominee corporation, to evade paying U.S. taxes.

Schumaker and Matthias W. Rickenbach, a Swiss lawyer who was director of the Hong Kong subsidiary, were indicted on fraud charges in Miami on Aug. 20, a day after the Swiss and U.S. governments announced an agreement requiring UBS to divulge the names of some 4,450 wealthy Americans suspected of dodging taxes through secret bank accounts.

Since the deferred prosecution agreement was reached in February, guilty pleas to filing a false tax return have been entered by yacht broker Robert Moran of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in April; accountant Steven Michael Rubinstein of Boca Raton, Fla., in June, and Jeffrey Chernick of Stanfordville, N.Y., in July.

Last month, another UBS client, Juergenn Homann of Saddle River, N.J., pleaded guilty to failing to file a report of foreign bank and financial accounts.

John McCarthy of Malibu, Calif., agreed in August to plead guilty to failing to report ownership of and interest in a foreign financial account but technically has yet to enter the plea.