“France: UBS fined in France for harassing whistleblowers”, 10 March 2025

The Swiss bank UBS was fined €75,000 (CHF71,410), the maximum penalty, in Paris on Monday for moral harassment by its French subsidiary of two whistleblowers, who had denounced the tax evasion system organised by the bank.

UBS Europe, which absorbed the French branch, was also ordered to pay €50,000 in damages to Nicolas Forissier, the former head of internal auditing.

However, the bank was acquitted of witness tampering and obstructing the health, safety and working conditions committee.

According to Forissier’s lawyer, William Bourdon, this is the first time in France that a whistleblower has obtained a conviction against his former employer.

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At the hearing, the public prosecutor had requested a maximum fine of €225,000 for the three offences.

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In the main case, UBS France was definitively acquitted in 2021 for complicity in laundering tax fraud, but fined €1.875 million for complicity in illegal canvassing.

However, the case against the parent company, UBS AG, continues.

In 2019, it was fined a record €3.7 billion, plus €800 million in damages, for setting up a “system” to “facilitate” tax evasion by wealthy French taxpayers between 2004 and 2012.

On appeal in 2021, following a change in case law, the penalty was reduced to a total of €1.8 billion.

And in 2023, the Court of Cassation definitively confirmed the bank’s guilt, but cancelled the penalties and damages, ordering a new trial to re-examine them.