Swiss banker pleads guilty to US fraud

A Swiss banker admitted to committing fraud for helping an unnamed hedge fund manager and other US taxpayers hide $60 million in assets.

Daniel Walchli, who was a member of the executive board of Zurich s IHAG Holding AG, which owns Privatbank IHAG, entered a plea Thursday to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the US. Manhattan federal prosecutors didn't want to seek a penalty outside of 24 to 30 months, which is a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

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

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

Most of the hidden assets cited in the case were owned by a Manhattan hedge fund manager who was identified as Client 1 only in the indictment. 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