By Jane Sutton
MIAMI (Reuters) - The former head of UBS (UBSN.CH)AG's wealth management business, Raoul Weil, was formally declared a fugitive on Tuesday after failing to surrender to U.S. authorities on charges of conspiring to help wealthy Americans hide assets from U.S. tax authorities.
Prosecutors in Miami released a copy of a judge's brief order putting Weil on the court's fugitive list, but said they would have no further comment.
An indictment unsealed in November alleged that Weil and other unidentified bankers conspired to help 17,000 Americans hide $20 billion of assets in Swiss bank accounts in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
At the time, an attorney for Weil said he was innocent and called the indictment against him "totally unjustified." That attorney, Aaron Marcu, could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday night.
The charges were a major escalation of a U.S. investigation into UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank.
Weil was based in Switzerland and it was unclear whether the United States would seek his extradition.
UBS said in November that it was cooperating with investigators. But Carl Levin, chairman of the U.S. Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations, subsequently said the Swiss government had forbidden UBS to turn over names of its U.S. clients because the disclosure would violate Swiss secrecy laws.
Weil oversaw the Swiss bank's cross-border private banking business and was a member of UBS' executive board until stepping down when the charges were made public.
His failure to appear is bound to refocus attention on prosecutors' so-far unsuccessful bid to jail alleged swindler Bernard Madoff while he awaits a possible indictment for fraud in what could the be largest Ponzi scheme in history.
In a Ponzi scheme, early investors are paid off with money from new clients.
In June, Samuel Israel III, a former hedge fund manager convicted of cheating investors out of $400 million, faked his own death to avoid a 20-year prison sentence. His high-profile run from justice ended after his mother persuaded him to turn himself in.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
