Serious allegations against Neue Zürcher Bank They made Americans Swiss A banker and a lawyer from the Zurich Gold Coast are said to have helped US tax fraudsters with every trick in the book. Now they face five years in prison. Blick Published: 08/23/2009 at 00:00 Updated: 05/10/2018 at 16:28 By Peter Hossli A casino in Las Vegas (USA): Zolliker lawyer Matthias Rickenbach (42) and businessman John McCarthy have a few drinks. Then they come to business. Rickenbach suggests that the American invest his fortune in front companies. That brings higher returns, and the US Treasury never finds the money. McCarthy jumped on the deal. What happened in the Nevada desert on November 3, 2006 is now catching up with Rickenbach. The United States filed criminal charges against him on Thursday. SonntagsBlick already knew at the beginning of August that the USA was preparing proceedings against Rickenbach. At the time, he threatened to sue for personal injury if the case became public. Now his name is in the world press. Rickenbach worked closely in the US market with Hansruedi Schumacher (42), a UBS banker who joined Neue Zürcher Bank (NZB) as head of private banking seven years ago. The USA also filed criminal charges against Schumacher. The NCB dismissed him without notice. If the US court finds the two Swiss guilty, they face five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The timing of the ad is perfect: the day before, Switzerland and the USA concluded the settlement in the UBS tax dispute. The next day, former UBS client advisor Bradley Birkenfeld (44) received a 40-month prison sentence and a $40,000 fine. This shows: "The pressure from the US tax authorities remains high," says law professor John Coffee from Columbia University in New York. He expects new criminal lawsuits against Swiss bankers and lawyers as well as civil lawsuits against banks. The US judiciary gets incriminating material from the voluntary disclosures made by tax evaders. According to the Wall Street Journal, proceedings are threatened by Credit Suisse, Julius Baer, the Zürcher Kantonalbank and the Geneva UBP. The lawsuit against Rickenbach and Schumacher is widely documented. The two are said to have helped New York toy manufacturer Jeffrey Chernick and California businessman McCarthy hide their millions from the tax authorities. The prosecution also gives details of how they work: the two falsified their clients' tax returns and invested their money in front companies. They stowed "huge sums of cash" in Swiss lockers. They advised customers to transfer their money from UBS to the NZB, since the small private bank does not have a tax agreement with the USA and therefore cannot be prosecuted by the judiciary. Particularly bold: Schumacher and Rickenbach were also on the road as Schweizermacher. They forged documents to make it appear that their US clients' funds belonged to Swiss. A year ago, when Chernick asked if his name would be reported to the US IRS, they encouraged him to bribe officials. According to the complaint, Chernick gave the Swiss $45,000 for this purpose. The federal prosecutor's office is now investigating whether the two pocketed the money themselves or bribed officials. Neither the lawyer nor the banker wanted to comment on the allegations against SonntagsBlick. In two months they will be summoned to Florida for the first hearing. If you stay away from the appointment, you will be put out for a search. Switzerland does not extradite criminally prosecuted citizens. But even if they were to travel to the EU, the two could be arrested and handed over to the USA. Schumacher and Rickenbach are prisoners in their own country.