Wegelin & Co.
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| Kommanditgesellschaft | |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1741 |
| Founder | Caspar Zyli |
| Defunct | 2013 |
| Headquarters | Museumstrasse 1, St. Gallen, Switzerland |
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Area served
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Global |
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Key people
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Konrad Hummler (Managing Partner) |
| Products | |
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Number of employees
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| Website | www |
Wegelin & Co. is a now-defunct bank that was located in St. Gallen in the Canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland, and specialized in private banking and asset management.
Between 2002 and 2010, Wegelin & Co. assisted citizens of the United States in evading taxes on assets totalling over $1.2 billion. In early 2012, Wegelin & Co. transferred all its non-US activities, clients, and assets, and almost its entire staff, to its subsidiary Notenstein Privatbank. Notenstein Privatbank was subsequently sold to the Raiffeisen banking group.
In January 2013, the reduced Wegelin pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a New York court to assisting more than 100 American citizens to hide $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service over a 10-year period. Although the bank's practice is legal under Swiss law, the bank agreed to pay $57.8 million (£36m; €44m, or about 5% of the $1.2 billion) in fines to US authorities. At about the same time that the plea agreement was announced, Wegelin & Co. declared that it would close. The Notenstein Privatbank continues to operate from the former Wegelin & Co. headquarters with its former 700 employees. Wegelin agreed to pay $57.8 million to the United States in restitution and fines. Otto Bruderer, a managing partner at the bank, said in court that "Wegelin was aware that this conduct was wrong."
Founded by Caspar Zyli in 1741, the company was renamed Wegelin & Co. in 1893. The bank's legal name changed multiple times by incorporating the names of the senior personally liable partners. As of 2013, the bank's name was Wegelin & Co. Privatbankiers, Gesellschafter Bruderer, Hummler, Tolle & Co. At the time of its closing, it was the oldest bank in Switzerland and the 13th oldest in the world.
The bank was founded as a partnership by a linen-cloth merchant by the name of Caspar Zyli (1717–1758), and was originally named Leinentuchhandel und Speditionshandlung ("Linen trade and freight forwarder"). The company provided banking services from the beginning. In 1798 Zyli's son acquired the Nothveststein building. In 1860 Zyli's nephew Emil Wegelin-Wild became a partner. He concentrated the firm's activities on asset management. The firm was converted to a Kommanditgesellschaft in 1893. It changed its name to the current name in 1893, which originated from Emil Wegelin-Wild.
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Wikipedia