WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top executive for Swiss banking giant UBS AG apologized to a Senate panel on Wednesday for helping wealthy Americans to dodge U.S. taxes and said the case should be resolved diplomatically, not in court.
"Mr. Chairman, we deeply regret our breaches of U.S. law," Mark Branson said in prepared remarks to the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Branson objected to a U.S. Internal Revenue Service civil lawsuit to force the company to reveal information on as many as 52,000 undisclosed accounts that the U.S. suspects were used by Americans to avoid paying taxes.
"UBS (UBSN.CH)believes the dispute should be resolved through diplomatic discussions" between Switzerland and the United States, Branson said, adding "the IRS is attempting to resolve this diplomatic dispute in a courtroom, which is neither productive, nor proper."
(Reporting by Corbett B. Daly and Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Neil Stempleman)
