‘National Hero’

Weil’s compatriots were cheered by his court victory, with Geneva financial newspaper L’Agefi calling him a “national hero” of “remarkable courage.” His success may tempt others to take their chances with a jury or to plead guilty and help prosecutors in bids for leniency.

They include former employees of Switzerland’s top three wealth managers -- UBS, Credit Suisse Group AG and Julius Baer Group Ltd. Just 10 days after Weil’s acquittal, Martin Dunki, a 66-year-old retired client adviser at Zurich-based Rahn & Bodmer Banquiers, a private bank established in 1750, was indicted on a charge of conspiring to help Americans hide hundreds of millions of dollars in offshore accounts.

Menchel said the Weil case was built on lies told by former UBS bankers who implicated him to avoid prison. Prosecutors argued that Weil knew UBS bankers had used deception, sham corporate structures and cash deliveries to help U.S. clients cheat the Internal Revenue Service.

Year’s Confinement

“I was acquitted, but that was after two months in prison and then 10 months under house arrest,” Weil was quoted as saying in an interview published in Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag on Nov. 9. “They wanted to soft-boil me.”

Weil’s acquittal was a setback for the Justice Department’s goal of holding more top managers accountable for crimes committed by their banks. The agency is under pressure to prosecute offshore bankers, as well as those involved in rigging interest rates and currency markets, according to Patrick O’Donnell, a white-collar criminal-defense lawyer at Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP in Washington.

“The U.S. seems to bring far more extraterritorial cases than any other country, and the trend is growing,” O’Donnell said. “Congress has been howling for the heads of executives.”

38 Charged

Weil was one of 38 offshore bankers, lawyers and advisers charged in the U.S. since 2008 with crimes related to helping Americans evade taxes. Of those, seven pleaded guilty, two were convicted at trial, two await trial and two were acquitted, including Weil.