July 29, 2009

Federal prosecutors have widened their investigation into Swiss banks suspected of selling offshore tax evasion services to wealthy Americans to include a small private bank in Zurich, according to court papers filed on Tuesday and a senior official briefed on the matter, The New York Times’s Lynnley Browning reported.

The disclosure, which did not identify the bank, came in court papers that charged an American UBS client, Jeffrey P. Chernick, with filing a false and fraudulent tax return in 2007.

Mr. Chernick, who lives in Stanfordville, N.Y., and owns a company that does business with toy manufacturers in Hong Kong and China, pleaded guilty and waived indictment in exchange for agreeing to cooperate with the continuing investigation into UBS and the new inquiry into the other bank.