UBS Goes and Bad News Follows

Now that the worlds biggest bank disaster had been bailed out on the workin backs of everyday stiffs we find it's the Uber rich that UBS has had a soft spot for all along.

A top UBS AG official was indicted by a U.S. grand jury on one charge of conspiring to help 20,000 wealthy Americans hide assets from the Internal Revenue Service to maintain a ``profitable'' business for the Swiss bank.

Raoul Weil, 48, chairman of global wealth management at UBS in Zurich, was indicted Nov. 6 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, according to court papers unsealed today. His bank continued to help American clients evade taxes with false documents after agreeing in 2001 to identify account holders and tell the IRS about their income, the U.S. alleged.

An Ambitious 20,000 at a time; what were the fees on those?

UBS gained $200 million a year in revenue from the work of Weil and the other executives and managers, the department said.

For $200 million a year would UBS managers see no evil; you bet, they'd break their necks to do it. And isn't that just the Wall Street way, force the little guy to fork over a cut of his meager take, via the income tax funded bailout, while you help the rich avoid those very taxes. That's why government bailouts will always fail, or cause the government to fail, because a snake cannot live by eating it's own tail.

Sensing the displeasure of the pee ons in the pee on dom, UBS announced that it was cleaning up it's executive compensation schedule. Sure!

Swiss bank UBS AG (UBS) said will adopt a new compensation model for the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board, beginning in 2009.
UBS's new compensation model will be focused on the long-term and more closely aligned with the value creation of the firm.

That will keep the city folk happy, but in credit crunch country, it sounds a lot like closin the barn door after the horses are all gone.

Board Peter Kurer, CEO Marcel Rohner and the other members of the Group Executive Board (GEB) will receive only their fixed salary for 2008.

Which tells you that the would have been bonus, was just like the banks performance in 2008, sh!t. And don't pay any attention to the noise about former UBS chief Marcel Ospel, returning 33 million Swiss francs ($27.5 million) as if he didn't have to. He did!

Former UBS AG chief Marcel Ospel, at the centre of a Swiss media campaign against excessive pay for UBS bankers, and other ex-board members agreed on Tuesday to return 33 million Swiss francs ($27.5 million) in payments from the bank.

Ospel, who quit as UBS chairman in April, has been asked by Swiss media to return his hefty pay check. Under his chairmanship UBS carried out the aggressive risk-taking strategy in the United States which nearly brought the Swiss bank to its knees as the credit crisis hit.

It may sound like a lot, but neither UBS nor Ospel would give up the proportion of the total remuneration the ex UBS executive was giving back.

"I hope that my action will help to resolve a situation that was inconceivable to me until a short time ago," Ospel said in a statement, as he offered to give up payments which accounted for more than two thirds of the 33-million-franc total.

If he didn't see it until a short time ago he's an idiot or a liar, I check the latter box, but either way if he gives back 33 million, the government just pumped 6 billion into UBS, 33 M to 6 B, I'll flip you double or nothing all day long for that; any takers? Beyond that who knows what other pressures were brought, this could easily have been an offer he couldn't refuse.

UBS AG (UBS) said Thursday it is looking into whether to pursue lawsuits against former executives as it struggles to put major mortgage-related write-downs behind it.

The Zurich-based bank said new, independent board members are investigating who is responsible for the major losses, and whether legal action can be pursued.

Oh quell surprise!

And now that the good Gittins have all been Got, by upper management UBS is gittin rid of rank-and-file.

Hundreds more City workers could lose their jobs before Christmas as Swiss giant UBS prepares to slash headcount once again.

The ailing bank is said to be preparing to reduce its 80,000-strong workforce by another 4,500.

The cull will hit UBS's investment banking division hardest, putting hundreds of its London staff in the firing line.

UBS, which declined to comment, has already axed 9,000 workers globally after losing tens of billions from bets on toxic assets linked to US home loans.

And no sooner had UBS finalized its $30 billion repayment of junk bonds that it sold, then it was named as the perpetrator in another scam.

HSH Asks to Restore Fraud Claim in CDO Complaint Against UBS
biggest state-owned lender, yesterday filed an amended complaint seeking to restore a fraud claim against UBS AG over losses on a portfolio linked to the U.S. subprime-mortgage market.

The claim, along with five others, was dismissed in October when New York State Supreme Court Justice Richard Lowe ruled HSH may continue its lawsuit against UBS on a breach of contract claim. The litigation centers on a $500 million transaction in 2002 involving a collateralized debt obligation called North Street 4

Finally since obtaining 6.6 billion francs seems so easy UBS thought that it may as well raise another $6.6 billion by raiding a hedge fund.

Swiss bank UBS said on Friday it had frozen a $6 billion real estate fund as it could not keep up with redemption requests from wealth management clients.

The Jersey-based UBS Wealth Management Global Property Fund will be closed until the end of 2009.

Nice little euphemism there, telling people they can't have their own money back, is usually called a ripoff, but we will use our own little euphemism here and rack it up as cash raised.