Goodbye to Offshore Tax Shelters?

Now that some Swiss banking secrets have surfaced, indictment season has begun, The New York Times reports.

Sounds like bad news for certain billionaires and their offshore private bankers. Also for the New Haven Trust Company, which turns out to be located more than a stone's throw from the New Haven Green in Lichtenstein, specializing in "tax planning."

The Wall Street Journal comments:

The case provides a rare window into the world of private banking -- the personalized financial services offered to wealthy customers -- where Switzerland's UBS has long dominated. The case could lead to other U.S. clients: The indictment says the two financiers -- former UBS private banker Bradley Birkenfeld and Liechtenstein financial adviser Mario Staggl -- courted rich Americans and helped some of them avoid paying taxes.

The indictments are the latest sign that elaborate tax-evasion schemes available only to the super-rich are teetering toward a collapse.