San Diegan Jeffrey Chatfield was given a mere sentence of three years of probation today (March 14) for hiding assets in secrecy-shrouded tax havens of the Bahamas and Switzerland. U.S. District Judge Michael Annello did the sentencing. Chatfield was also ordered to pay $96,000 to the Internal Revenue Service. According to court statements and documents, Chatfield filed false tax returns between 2000 and 2008 in which he failed to report that he had an interest in or signature authority over Bahamian and Swiss accounts at UBS (once named Bank of Switzerland) and Credit Suisse. In 2000, Chatfield opened a bank account at UBS Bahamas Ltd in the name of a nominee. Chatfield stashed $900,000 in untaxed securities and cash in the accounts. Later, he shoveled the money to other Bahamian and Swiss accounts.

In February of 2009, UBS agreed to provide the U.S. government with identities of and account information on certain U.S. customers of the bank. The agreement got a lot of favorable publicity at the time. Optimists commented that, at last, the U.S. was going to crack down on the hundreds of billions of dollars stashed untaxed in offshore banks. If this is the kind of a meek wrist slap that will be handed to offenders, one must wonder if the agreement was worth it.