Swiss Banker Admits Helping Hedge Fund Manager Evade US Taxes

(Bloomberg) — A Swiss banker pleaded guilty to fraud for helping an unnamed hedge fund manager and other US taxpayers hide $60 million in assets.

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Daniel Walchli, who worked at Zurich’s Privatbank IHAG, entered his plea Thursday to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the US. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, but Manhattan federal prosecutors agreed not to seek a punishment outside of 24-to-30 months.

Walchli, 55, was charged in 2021 along with three other Privatbank IHAG bankers, as well as Swiss financial firm Allied Finance Trust AG and two of its executives.

According to prosecutors, the bankers approached a handful of high-net-worth US clients and offered to conceal their assets through a scheme they called the “Singapore Solution.” The clients’ assets were transferred to accounts in other jurisdictions, then repatriated to Switzerland in newly opened accounts nominally held by a Singapore-based asset management firm.

Most of the hidden assets that were cited in the case belonged to an Manhattan hedge fund manager identified in the indictment only as “Client-1.”

One of the other taxpayers, Wayne Franklyn Chinn, pleaded guilty in San Francisco federal court in 2019 to participating in the scheme. Chinn agreed to turn over $2.2 million.

The case is US v. Bechtiger, 20-cr-497, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).