Facts
The Federal Supreme Court decided on two appeals against decisions of the Federal Criminal Court in a mutual legal assistance case between Switzerland and the USA. The New York District Attorney's Office is conducting criminal proceedings against [X.] and other persons for tax offenses. They accuse the defendants of submitting materially false business records of a company to the tax authorities, thereby causing a tax loss of more than 7 million USD to the United States.
The Federal Office of Justice granted the legal assistance request from the USA and ordered the release of bank records. [X.] and [Y. SA] filed appeals against these decisions.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court concluded that the acts attributed to the defendants constitute tax fraud under Swiss law pursuant to Art. 14 para. 2 VStrR. The statute of limitations for tax offenses is 15 years according…