Paris — A former UBS executive, who is trying to reverse a conviction at a landmark tax trial, could not remember the assets managed by his team focusing on French clients out of Switzerland.
Philippe Wick, who ran the France International desk before leaving UBS more than a decade ago, said that “he doesn’t quite know what he’s being accused of” and wants to move on. He said his memory isn’t precise when judge Hervé Robert asked him how much wealth his team managed.
Wick is one of several bankers tied to UBS appealing against their convictions linked to charges that the lender helped clients launder funds through numbered accounts and trusts that should have been declared to French tax officials. The bank is also challenging a €4.5bn penalty as part of the guilty verdict two years ago.
“It’s something that goes way back that I don’t remember and don’t want to remember,” Wick told the Paris appeals court on Tuesday. “I don’t cultivate memories at UBS.”
Wick and UBS were also found guilty of covertly sending Swiss bankers across the border to find new French clients even though they lacked the paperwork to offer such services in France. The bank and the Swiss national deny the accusations.
While UBS’s French unit, set up in 1999, was focused on gaining new clients, Wick said the France International desk’s goal was to maintain long-standing relationships. It’s that aspect of his job he remembers much better.
“I’m very attached to meetings, people,” he said. “Emotion, empathy were important values for us.”
Robert replied: “That’s not how I imagined the banking world.”
The appeal is set to go on until March 24.
Bloomberg
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