The latest compliance issues in wealth management across North America.

DOJ, Lombard Odier
The US Department of Justice said it has adjusted its non-prosecution agreement with Swiss banking group Lombard Odier, with the bank paying an additional sum of $5.3 million to the department and providing information about its US-related account population, which now includes 88 additional accounts.  

The original non-prosecution agreement was signed on December 31, 2015, DOJ said in a statement.

The Swiss Bank Program, which was announced on August 29, 2013, provided a path for Swiss banks to resolve potential criminal liabilities in the United States relating to offshore banking services provided to United States taxpayers.  Swiss banks eligible to enter the program were required to advise the Department by December 31, 2013, that they had reason to believe that they had committed tax-related criminal offenses in connection with undeclared US-related accounts.  Swiss banks participating in the program were required to make a complete disclosure of their cross-border activities, provide detailed information on an account-by-account basis for accounts in which US taxpayers had a direct or indirect interest, cooperate in treaty requests for account information, and provide detailed information about the transfer of funds into and out of US-related accounts, including undeclared accounts, that identifies the sending and receiving banks involved in the transactions. 

The DOJ executed non-prosecution agreements with 80 banks between March 2015 and January 2016.  The Department imposed a total of more than $1.36 billion in Swiss Bank Program penalties, including more than $99 million in penalties from Lombard Odier.  

In the new agreement, Lombard Odier acknowledges that there were certain additional US-related accounts that it knew about, or should have known about, but that were not disclosed to the Department at the time of the signing of the non-prosecution agreement. Lombard Odier provided early self-disclosure of their unreported US-related accounts and has fully cooperated with the Department.