Ex-UBS Client to Plead Guilty in New York to Hiding Swiss Bank Account

Anton Ginzburg, 51, admitted today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, to failing to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts form, or FBAR, for 2007.

“I knew that I should file this form but I did not do so,” he told U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy.

Ginzburg’s case is part of a U.S. crackdown on tax evasion. Zurich-based UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, agreed in 2009 to pay $780 million to defer prosecution for aiding tax evasion by U.S. clients. The bank admitted that its Swiss private bankers helped wealthy Americans evade U.S. taxes from 2000 to 2007.

Jeffrey Harris, Ginzburg’s lawyer at Rubin, Winston, Diercks, Harris & Cooke LLP in Washington, declined to comment after the hearing.

“This is just a case where a guy had an account with after-tax dollars, lost money and did not file a form,” he said in a phone interview earlier today.

Ginzburg agreed to pay a civil penalty of half the account’s balance. He faces a maximum of five years in prison. Levy set sentencing for Nov. 17.