(Bloomberg News) A former UBS AG banker was indicted on a charge of conspiring to help wealthy Americans evade taxes by hiding accounts in a smaller Swiss regional bank.

Martin Lack, a Swiss resident and independent investment adviser, helped U.S. clients hide assets from the Internal Revenue Service through accounts at UBS and the so-called cantonal bank, according to an indictment in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That bank, not named in the indictment, is Basler Kantonalbank, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The indictment cites nine U.S. customers that Lack assisted. He helped them withdraw cash from undeclared accounts and discouraged them from joining an IRS amnesty program, according to the indictment. UBS, the largest Swiss bank, avoided prosecution in 2009 by paying $780 million and admitting it helped Americans evade taxes.

"Lack would and did solicit U.S. customers to open undeclared accounts at UBS and Cantonal Bank because Swiss bank secrecy would assist U.S. customers to conceal their ownership of the accounts," according to the indictment.

Lack is accused of conspiring with Renzo Gadola, a UBS banker from 1995 until 2008. Gadola pleaded guilty Dec. 22 in federal court in Miami, admitting that he encouraged U.S. clients to move their undeclared UBS accounts to Basler Kantonalbank. He is cooperating with prosecutors.

Lack was the executive director of the UBS North America International business until 2003, according to the indictment. That year, he set up Lack & Partner Asset Management AG in Zurich. Lack didn't immediately return a call left at the firm today.

Basler Kantonalbank

Michael Buess, a spokesman for Basler Kantonalbank, a Swiss regional lender based in Basel, said he couldn't confirm or deny any "cooperation between Lack and Basler Kantonalbank."

Lack traveled to the U.S. to visit customers with undeclared accounts, giving one a prepaid cell phone to call him, according to the indictment.

Lack, who shared an office with Gadola, feared he would be arrested after 2008 if he visited the U.S., according to the indictment. Both men worked with a Mississippi client who gave $445,000 in cash to Lack in 2007 to open an account at the cantonal bank, according to the indictment.

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