Brazil's Federal Police on Tuesday arrested 20 people in connection with a tax evasion and money laundering scheme involving executives of Swiss banks like UBS, AIG, Credit Suisse and Clariden.
A UBS executive identified as Marc Henri Dizerens is among those arrested. UBS spokesman Doug Morris said the bank acknowledged the arrest of an employee by the police in Sao Paulo, but did not reveal the person's name. Morris added that UBS was in contact with the Brazilian authorities in charge of the case.
The police are still after Clariden executive Reto Puzzi and another UBS employee, Luc Marc de Penzas.
The main suspect, Claudine Spiero, who worked in the illegal currency exchange market, was arrested. Her son Daniel Spiero, who was also accused of being involved with the gang, remained at large in the United States.
AIG executive Magda Maria Malvao Portugal was also arrested, said the police.
After one and a half years of investigations, police made the arrests in the states of Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil, Amazonas in the north, and Bahia in the northeast.
About 800,000 reais (462,420 U.S. dollars) were seized in the operation.
The Switzerland-headquartered banks are alleged to have allowed Brazilian clients to use black-market dollar changers to deposit or "hide" money in codified accounts.
Police Chief Ricardo Saadi said the gang would send at least 7 million reais (4.04 million dollars) per month to Switzerland.
According to Brazilian law, the maximum penalty for this kind of crime is 40 years in jail.
Source: Xinhua
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