Wegelin charged with aiding tax evasion US prosecutors have filed criminal charges against Wegelin, a 271-year-old private Swiss bank, for allegedly helping Americans evade paying taxes on $1.2bn in assets, marking the first time US authorities have indicted an overseas bank for aiding tax fraud. The indictment, a dramatic move that is often a death knell for financial institutions, follows Wegelin's sale of its non-US business last week to Switzerland's Raiffeisen, a co-operative banking group, for an undisclosed amount. The sale came two weeks after the US Department of Justice announced criminal charges against three Wegelin bankers and implicated senior Wegelin executives in court filings. Wegelin and the bankers are accused of helping more than 100 US account holders evade paying taxes, including persuading several in 2008 and 2009 to transfer accounts from UBS, which was under investigation, and another Swiss bank to further evade detection. The bankers, who worked in the group's Zurich office, have not been arrested. Wegelin's lawyer declined to comment. The investigation has ricocheted around Zurich and comes as the US and Swiss are trying to negotiate a tax deal concerning undeclared US accounts. It is not clear how the criminal charges levied against Switzerland's oldest private bank will affect the negotiations. At the time of the sale, Pierin Vincenz, Raiffeisen's chief executive, said the bank had lengthy discussions with Switzerland's Finma supervisory authority, which is one of the Swiss government bodies involved in the negotiations with the US. Prosecutors previously filed charges against bankers from UBS, Credit Suisse and Julius Baer. On Thursday, US prosecutors said they had seized $16m in Wegelin assets held in a UBS account in the US. Despite the sale, the legal exposure for senior Wegelin bankers remains. In a 58-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that senior officials, including a managing partner, attended meetings between several Wegelin bankers and account holders. During some of the meetings with clients, prosecutors alleged, the bankers sought to distinguish the bank from UBS by saying it was small, discreet and had no US presence. The bankers allegedly created sham foundations or code names, such as Elvis, for the accounts to disguise their owners" true identity, according to the indictment. Prosecutors allege the bankers took unusual steps to hide transfers. At one lunch meeting in August 2007, a client handed a banker an envelope filled with $16,000 in cash, according to the indictment. During the same lunch, the banker left the table and gave the same envelope to another client. The banker allegedly said it was becoming increasingly difficult to move money out of Switzerland and this was one technique he used. He later credited $16,000 to the first client's account.