Swiss banking giant UBS has been fined €3.7bn (£3.2bn; $4.2bn) in a French tax fraud case. A court in Paris found that the bank had illegally helped French clients hide billions of euros from French tax authorities between 2004 and 2012. UBS has denied any wrongdoing and a lawyer representing the firm said it would appeal against the ruling.
Following similar cases in the US in 2009 and Germany in 2014, the bank accepted multi-million pound fines. The penalties include a €3.7bn fine as well as damages of €800m payable to the French state. The bank has set aside $2.46bn to cover potential losses from litigation and regulatory requirements.
French prosecutors said UBS was “systematic” in its support to tax-evading customers and that the laundering of proceeds from the tax fraud was done on an “industrial” scale.
