IRS OFFSHORE TAX EVASION INVESTIGATIONS

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that its investigation of offshore tax evasion will expand to include Europe's largest bank, HSBC in London, and Credit Suisse in Zurich. The increasing scrutiny of illegal offshore tax schemes comes as the Wall Street bailout and turmoil in the banking and financial services industries generate more interest in IRS Whistleblower Program claims.

DOJ and IRS continue to investigate UBS, Switzerland's largest bank. In late 2008, the government secured the unsealing of the an indictment of Raoul Weil, a UBS senior executive, who faces charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S. by concealing American clients' taxable assets.