UBS Client Sentenced on Tax Evasion

The first U.S. client of UBS AG prosecuted in the U.S. government's wide-ranging offshore tax-evasion probe was sentenced Wednesday to three years of probation and a year of home-confinement.

Defendant Steven Michael Rubinstein, a Florida accountant, also was ordered to pay a $40,000 criminal fine.

The sentence was lighter than the recommendation of prosecutors, who sought a one-year prison term. He faced a possible sentence of 18 to 24 months under advisory sentencing guidelines.

Rubinstein was sentenced in a Florida federal court for filing a false tax return. Prosecutors charged him in April and he pleaded guilty in June.

Prosecutors said Rubinstein communicated with UBS bankers from 2001 to 2008 about the purchase and sale of securities worth more than $4.4 million. They also said Rubinstein repatriated roughly $7 million into the U.S. to buy property and build a home in Boca Raton, Fla.

UBS admitted in February to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government of billions in taxes by helping wealthy Americans hide assets.

The bank paid $780 million in a deal to avoid prosecution and also agreed to reveal the identities of about 250 U.S. clients who allegedly set up sham accounts.

In August, UBS agreed to turn over the names of another 4,450 U.S. clients.

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