Business

AT UBS SECRET IS OUT

Secret Swiss bank accounts are being yanked out of the reach of rich Americans as authorities widen efforts to stamp out more of the loose ways of Wall Street.

UBS, the world’s largest wealth manager and target of a Senate inquiry into hidden offshore cash, said yesterday it no longer will offer secret offshore havens to Americans to park their riches.

The surprise move came in response to a US probe that was launched after a bank employee came forward with the names of US citizens with secret accounts who may be trying to evade taxes. UBS is accused of conspiring to help clients dodge taxes.

CFO Mark Branson also told a Senate subcommittee that UBS bankers will be banned from traveling to the US to meet with potential clients who want to evade US laws by opening accounts at branches outside the US. As many as 19,000 Americans hold such accounts.

“Client identity is generally protected from disclosure under Swiss law,” Branson said.

But those protections won’t apply in tax-fraud probes, he said.

It was the boldest step yet in a multi-faceted crackdown on numerous improper financial practices across the country which also snared beleaguered Countrywide Financial and Wachovia Securities in separate actions yesterday.

California AG Jerry Brown filed additional civil charges against Countrywide, the largest originator of questionable, high-risk mortgages.

Brown accused Angelo Mozilo’s Countrywide of deliberately ignoring poor credit scores and shoving loans onto poor people.

Meanwhile, agents of securities regulators in six states staged a major raid yesterday on the headquarters of Wachovia Securities in search of evidence over alleged rigging of auctions where municipalities and other public entities attempted to borrow money – only to face outrageous interest hikes of as much as six-fold.

The alleged rigging caused the collapse of the $330 billion auction-rate securities market, said Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.

Officials said they were forced to raid Wachovia Securities’ St. Louis offices because the company wouldn’t provide requested documents, e-mails, transcripts and other records.