64 Swiss banks pay $742m penalties to US taxman

Dreyfus Sons & Co has operated for two centuries as a private Swiss bank and recently it helped US clients hide assets from the US taxman — the Internal Revenue Service —by concealing their true ownership with offshore entities and by storing gold and cash in a segregated area of its vaults.

That’s according to a non-prosecution agreement, released on Tuesday, that the bank reached with the Justice Department in the US. Dreyfus avoided US prosecution by agreeing to pay $24.2m (€22m) and admitting it “did not implement strict enough controls” to ensure its American clients paid their taxes, the agreement says.

George Clarke, a lawyer for Dreyfus, declined to comment.