NJ man sentenced to 5 year probation for failing to report Swiss account assets as UBS client

UBS client sentenced to 5 years probation

NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey client of the international banking giant UBS has been sentenced to 5 years probation after pleading guilty to concealing more than $6 million in assets in Swiss bank accounts.

Juergen Homann of Saddle River is among six U.S.-based clients of UBS to plead guilty in an ongoing federal investigation into the bank’s practices.

Officials from the Swiss-based UBS have admitted helping U.S. clients hide accounts from the Internal Revenue Service.

Homann, a German-born U.S. citizen, was sentenced Wednesday in a Newark, N.J., federal courtroom.

In addition to probation, Homann must also pay a $60,000 fine, perform 300 hours of community service and correct delinquent tax returns. His attorney, Cynthia Eddy, did not return a call for comment.

Homann pleaded guilty in September to failing to file the required disclosure forms, failing to report the account on his individual tax return and failing to report income earned on the account.

Prosecutors said that Homann had established an account with UBS in the late 1980s in the name of a Liechtenstein foundation. Under the advice of Swiss lawyer Matthias Rickenbach, prosecutors say Homann transferred his assets to a less-transparent Hong Kong corporation under the name ELM Finance Limited.

Court papers show Homann had about $6.1 million in assets in the ELM account at UBS in Switzerland from 2001 through 2008. Prosecutors contended he used the ELM account for a sham loan of $5 million used to fund his U.S. business.

Rickenbach was indicted for fraud in August for his alleged role in helping wealthy clients conceal their assets.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, Greg Reinert, said the prosecution declined to comment on the sentence.

Homann’s sentencing Wednesday came a day after the main whistleblower in the UBS case, Bradley Birkenfeld, filed a complaint against prosecutors for making allegedly false statements to the judge who sentenced Birkenfeld to prison. The 44-year-old Birkenfeld is scheduled to report to prison Friday to begin serving a term of more than three years.

Birkenfeld’s disclosures led UBS last year to pay a $780 million fine and reach an agreement with the Swiss and U.S. governments to divulge names of some 4,450 wealthy Americans suspected of evading taxes through secret bank accounts.

UBS clients Steven Michael Rubinstein of Boca Raton, Fla., Robert Moran of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and Jeffrey Chernick of Stanfordville, N.Y., have all pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return as part of the case. UBS client John McCarthy of Malibu, Calif., has pleaded guilty for failing to report his ownership of and interest in a foreign financial account. Roberto Cittadini of Bellevue, Wash., who pleaded guilty in October to filing a false tax return, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 8.