UBS Group AG has agreed to pay €835 million to resolve a long-running legal dispute with French authorities over allegations of aggravated tax fraud laundering and illegal banking solicitation. The Swiss bank announced Tuesday that it will pay a €730 million fine plus €105 million in civil penalties to the French state, bringing closure to a case that has spanned nearly a decade.

The settlement follows a complex legal journey that began with UBS's initial conviction in 2019, when the bank was ordered to pay €4.5 billion. That amount was later reduced to €1.8 billion on appeal in 2021 before ultimately being settled at the current €835 million figure. The case centered on UBS's cross-border commercial activities in France between 2004 and 2012, during which French authorities alleged the bank illegally solicited wealthy French taxpayers to open undeclared Swiss accounts.

France's highest court, the Cour de cassation, confirmed UBS's guilt in November 2023 for illegal client solicitation and aggravated tax fraud laundering but referred the case back to the appeals court solely to reassess the penalty amounts. The court had canceled the confiscation penalty, deeming it illegal, and found that the civil damages awarded to the state lacked sufficient legal justification, necessitating the reassessment of financial penalties.

The resolution avoids what would have been a third trial for the wealth management bank before the Paris Court of Appeal. The case has been emblematic of France's intensified efforts against tax fraud in recent years, with the original 2019 judgment setting records as the heaviest penalty ever imposed by a French court for tax fraud laundering before being substantially reduced through the appeals process.