Wegelin & Co., a Swiss private bank, pled guilty to conspiring with U.S. taxpayers to hide more than $1.2 billion in secret Swiss bank accounts and the income generated in these accounts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

One of the managing partners of Wegelin, Otto Bruderer, appeared on behalf of the bank to enter the guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.

Wegelin was represented by Richard Strassberg of Goodwin Procter in New York and John Moustakas of Goodwin Procter in Washington, D.C.

The case represents the first time that a foreign bank has been charged with facilitating tax evasion by U.S. taxpayers and the first guilty plea by a foreign bank to tax charges.

Wegelin will pay approximately $20 million in restitution to the IRS and to pay a $22.05 million fine.

Wegelin pay a civil forfeiture of an additional $15.8 million, representing the gross fees earned by the bank on the undeclared accounts of U.S. taxpayers.

Together with the April 2012 forfeiture of over $16.2 million from Wegelin’s correspondent bank account, this amounts to a total recovery to the United States of approximately $74 million.

“There is no excuse for wealthy Americans flouting their responsibilities as citizens of this great country to pay their taxes, and there is no excuse for foreign financial institutions helping them to do so,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

“Wegelin became a haven for U.S. taxpayers seeking to circumvent the tax code by hiding their money in secret off-shore accounts, and the bank willfully and aggressively jumped in to fill a void that was left when other Swiss banks abandoned the practice due to pressure from U.S. law enforcement.

“This guilty plea is a watershed moment in our efforts to hold to account both the individuals and the banks – wherever they may be in the world – who are engaging in unlawful conduct that deprives the U.S. Treasury of billions of dollars of tax revenue.  We will continue our efforts until this practice is eliminated in its entirety.”