Raoul Weil, a former UBS banker charged by US authorities five years ago for allegedly helping rich Americans dodge taxes via secret Swiss bank accounts, has agreed to go to the United States to face trial after being arrested in Italy, Weil’s lawyer and judicial sources told Reuters.
Weil, a 54-year-old Swiss citizen, has been held in an Italian jail for more than five weeks after police arrested him in a hotel in Bologna where he was holidaying with his wife.
US authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Weil in early 2009, just months after he was charged for allegedly conspiring to help 17,000 American clients of Swiss bank UBS avoid taxes.
“Mr. Weil agreed to extradition to the US because he has always been prepared to confront these charges,” Weil’s lawyer, Aaron R. Marcu of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in New York, said. Weil has said he has committed no wrongdoing.
Judicial sources told Reuters Weil had agreed to be extradited at a court hearing in Bologna on Monday.
US Justice Department spokespeople in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.