Ex-banker granted $10.5 million bail

Former UBS wealth management boss Raoul Weil, charged with tax fraud by US authorities, has been freed on $10.5 million (CHF9.3 million) bail in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Weil, a 54-year-old Swiss citizen, was arrested in Italy in October. The Florida court indictment accuses him of playing a prominent role in helping UBS’s US clients hide around $20 billion in undeclared assets between 2002 and 2007.

Weil appeared in shackles in federal court on Monday, three days after he was extradited from Italy. He did not enter a plea and his arraignment was postponed until January 7.

The magistrate agreed to let him stay with friends in New Jersey after putting up the bail, which included $9 million in a personal surety by Weil, $500,000 from the New Jersey family and the other $1 million a corporate surety bond signed with a bail bondsman.

Raoul Weil appeared in shackles in federal court in Florida Keystone

The judge ordered Weil be placed on a GPS monitoring system and surrender his passport.

If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

Fugitive

Weil parted company with Switzerland’s largest bank in 2009 after being declared a fugitive by the US courts for failing to respond to a criminal indictment issued in 2008. UBS paid a $780 million fine in 2009 after admitting to aiding and abetting US tax evaders.

Several Swiss bankers and lawyers have since been indicted in the US for their alleged part in helping wealthy US citizens hide their assets from the tax authorities.

Weil is one of the most prominent of the accused having moved through the ranks of UBS’s vaunted wealth management business to become chief executive and then chairman of its global wealth management division.