Yes, but between tens thousands of people, which makes it sound a lot less dramatic. Now, fair enough, it works out at a not insubstantial over $288k per bank account holder, but hidden in the detail there could be a small number of very large accounts distorting the average.
Throwing around arbitrary numbers here for the sake of debate, having 100 people who are evading $10 million in taxes each is probably more likely to be prosecuted than 100,000 people owing $10,000 each, because the offenses are far more egregious and the cost of prosecuting 100 large offenders is far cheaper than pursuing 100,000 smaller offenders. Why wouldn't the government want to pursue these cases?
Well - and purely for the sake of argument - I think it is entirely possible to argue that tax evasion is a morally correct choice, if the tax evader has the perception, for example, that the taxes will be used to bail out banks, finance foreign invasions, or support the lifestyles of junkies. That perception might even be grounded in a degree of evidence.
Morality is not law, and no government allows its citizens these kinds of rights. But, frankly, I doubt even the smallest minority of tax evaders ever have this kind of altruism in mind, except as a secondary justification after the fact. The primary motive is always greed. I'm pretty sure that murderers can find some kind of "moral justification" for their crimes too.
But US sentencing policies re white collar crime are extremely severe. I don't know of too many jurisdictions where the penalties for white collar crime are more severe. China, perhaps. I really don't know how it can be argued that, in the US, white collar criminals are given a slap on the wrist.
I'd love to see the stats regarding average white collar crime that doesn't make the news headlines versus the ones that do. The Bernie Madoffs of the world do get found guilty and sentenced, but statistically speaking, much of the time, white collar crime is treated lightly.
I don't think its a case of authorities looking the other way or not looking the other way, I think its a case of authorities pursuing alleged tax evaders across international borders in a pretty aggressive fashion, at least by historical standards. Are we going to be consistent and allow an Iranian government legal action to sequester assets held by Iranian expats in the US if the Iranian government claims that taxes have not been paid on them at source? To be blunt this case could be seen as a large nation bullying a small one into handing over confidential data - and I don't deny that some of these tax evaders probably deserved to get caught, particularly if the monies were proceeds of crimes other than just tax evasion.
The main trouble is that the level of confidentiality that Switzerland has in banking is atypical. Open a bank account in most nations around the world, and you will require a verifiable name, address, and tax ID number. The only reason to mandate this level of secrecy is to aid in criminal tax evasion or large-scale embezzlement, either in the private, corporate sphere (hiding assets from investors or regulators) or even in the governmental sphere (a corrupt government/dictator stealing the equivalent of billions of dollars from the treasury for their own personal use). Switzerland's behaviour is no different than that of a third-world "banana republic" when it comes to bank secrecy, and the rest of the developed world has been able to engage in world-class financial services with adequate consumer privacy without resorting to customer anonymity.
Well, it's true that there were court hearings, but the bank account holders don't seem to have been represented. Even in an extradition case, I assume the subject has the right to be legally represented.
Of course, wouldn't one's mere presence be an implicit admission of guilt in front of the courts? That's the trouble with anonymity. Courts generally demand transparency.
Regardless, those prosecuted by the government will have their day in court. It is also worth mentioning that the U.S. government has a tax amnesty through most of September, in which offenders will avoid criminal prosecution, in exchange for paying all relevant back taxes and standard IRS penalties for being late.