Swiss bank to pay $122.9 million for assisting US citizens to conceal billions of dollars' worth of assets

A private Swiss bank has acknowledged that it assisted customers in concealing assets from the IRS between 2008 and 2014 and will now pay $122.9 million in back taxes and penalties.

The Justice Department and court documents state that Banque Pictet & Cie, Co. assisted a group of American taxpayers in concealing $5.6 billion in income, saving them $50.6 million in taxes over those years.

The taxes owing by the bank's customers, the bank's fees for the unreported accounts, and the $39 million in penalties are all covered by the amount paid to the government.

"Banque Pictet et Cie admitted to actively helping U.S. taxpayers use coded accounts, foreign trusts and entities, nominee beneficiaries and other deceits to conceal their income and assets abroad,” acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg said in a Justice Department press release.

Banque Pictet, a wealth and asset management organization that is a subsidiary of the Pictet Group, a financial services corporation that reported having $691 billion in assets as of June 30, stored the money in 1,637 Swiss bank accounts.