More than 150 US customers of the Swiss bank UBS are being "criminally investigated" on suspicion of tax avoidance, court documents say.

法庭文书显示，超过150名瑞士银行UBS的美国顾客正在接受关于偷税漏税的“犯罪调查”。

The suspects are accused of hiding income and assets to dodge¹（闪避） US taxes.

Last week the US government and UBS took another step closer to resolving their dispute over tax evasion² by US customers of the Swiss bank.

Observers say the deal could mean the days of the secret Swiss bank account could be be numbered.

Divulge³ details

The deal between the US and UBS - due to be completed on Wednesday - looks set to end a stand-off that has lasted for months.

The US Justice Department has been seeking the names of more than 50,000 US customers with Swiss accounts.

But UBS has maintained that divulging⁴（泄露，暴露） the names would violate Swiss bank secrecy⁵ laws.

In February, UBS admitted to tax fraud in the US and agreed to pay $780m (£467m) as part of a provisional（暂定的，暂时的） deal to settle charges that it helped thousands of US clients use Swiss bank accounts to evade⁶ taxes.

UBS also handed over a limited number of account details.

But US officials argued this was not enough, and launched a fresh legal challenge to obtain the identities of all the bank's US account holders⁷.

Last week the UK signed a breakthrough deal to recover lost tax from Britons holding bank accounts in Liechtenstein.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has agreed with the Alpine⁸ tax haven⁹ to start exchanging information.