Over the course of many years, U.S. persons and other foreigners have used the bank-secrecy laws in Switzerland to evade taxes. In February 2009, UBS AG, once the biggest Swiss bank, avoided criminal prosecution by paying a penalty of $780 million, admitting it fostered U.S. tax evasion and agreeing to provide the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") and Department of Justice ("DOJ") data on more than 250 accounts owned by U.S. taxpayers. UBS later turned over data on an additional 4,450 accounts owned by U.S. taxpayers.

The DOJ is pursuing new criminal charges against various Swiss banks after information has been obtained through the 2009 and 2011 U.S. Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative programs. The U.S. and Swiss governments continue to negotiate a sweeping settlement that would provide information from a group of Swiss banks that have helped Americans evade U.S. income taxes.