法国对瑞士联合银行逃税问题介入调查
French authorities are formally investigating UBS for allegedly helping wealthy clients open undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland.
法国官方正在对瑞士联合银行展开正式调查，后者据称帮助其富裕的客户在瑞士开设未经申报的银行账户。
The Swiss bank is suspected of "complicity in illegal sales practices", an official at the Paris prosecutor's office told the BBC.
It also allegedly set up a shadow accounting system that masked transfers between French and Swiss bank accounts.
UBS said it was cooperating with authorities.
Under French law, being placed under official investigation means there is "serious or consistent" evidence to implicate a suspect in a crime. But it does not necessarily lead to a trial, the official said.
The latest move follows action taken against the bank's French unit last week which was also formally placed under scrutiny on similar suspicions.
'Schmoozing with the rich'
The former head of UBS France, Patrick de Fayet, and two other local branch executives are already being investigated.
Investigators are examining whether UBS staff broke a French law against "illicit solicitation" by actively approaching potential clients in France.
The allegations originally came to light after former staff blew the whistle on the practices that involved hundreds of retail and corporate clients.
An anonymous letter was reportedly sent to the regulatory arm of the French central bank suggesting that parallel accounts were opened in Switzerland but undeclared in France, which is illegal under French law.
The letter said a special record was kept between 2002-2007 listing undeclared bank accounts that had been opened by corporate clients.
According to French daily Le Monde citing former employees, UBS bankers regularly mingled with affluent people at sporting events and musical concerts - including some sponsored by UBS - in order to seek out possible clients for tax evasion.
In one example, a former marketing official at the French branch of UBS said Swiss bankers "made trips [to France] to meet 'prospects'" at events, including the tennis tournament Roland Garros.
Stephanie Gibaud said she was asked to "destroy a series of sensitive documents containing the names of current or potential clients who had participated in events organised on French territory."