Florida UBS client freed on $12 mln bond by judge

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 8 (Reuters) - A Florida judge on Wednesday ordered the release on a $12 million bond of an accountant charged with tax evasion in the first prosecution of wealthy U.S. clients of Swiss bank UBS AG (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N).

Steven Michael Rubinstein, who worked for a company in the yacht-building business, was arrested and charged last week with filing a false tax return by failing to disclose the account he controlled at UBS, Switzerland's largest bank.

Appearing handcuffed and in a khaki prison uniform in a Fort Lauderdale federal court, Rubinstein agreed to surrender his U.S. and South African passports and to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for the duration of his release ahead of an arraignment hearing set for April 22.

He was also ordered to respect a dusk-to-dawn curfew whenever he was outside his Boca Raton home.

U.S. authorities have said there will be other tax evasion prosecutions against American clients of UBS as they wage a legal battle with the Swiss bank to try to force it to give up the names of tens of thousands of Americans suspected of cheating the U.S. government by concealing accounts abroad.

Tax evasion is not considered a crime in Switzerland.

Balding and wearing spectacles, the soft-spoken Rubinstein told Federal Judge Barry Seltzer that his assets included his Boca Raton house, which he valued at up to $6 million dollars, and two condominium apartments valued at around $1 million.

He also declared a 45-foot boat, an apartment in Israel near Tel Aviv and two Mercedes Benz cars.

Asked by the judge about brokerage accounts, Rubinstein said he had several, including one with Morgan Stanley, but added: "I've been too depressed to read my statements recently."

He was referring to the financial crisis that has hit valuations on U.S. stock and securities markets.

The judge said repeatedly during the hearing he did not want to keep Rubinstein in jail any longer than was necessary, even though the government prosecutor, Jeffrey Neiman, said there was some risk that Rubinstein would attempt to flee.

Rubinstein's lawyer, Robert Panoff, declined to comment on how the accused would plead to the charge against him.

In February, UBS acknowledged responsibility for helping U.S. clients conceal assets from the U.S. government and agreed to pay a $780 million fine and to identify some U.S. clients. U.S. officials say Rubinstein's prosecution stemmed from this.

But, fearing they might get only a limited number of names, U.S. authorities are suing UBS to force it to disclose the identities of 52,000 U.S. clients it suspects of using the Swiss bank to evade taxes.

The U.S. Treasury said on Monday the United States and Switzerland would head back to the negotiating table to revise a 1996 bilateral tax treaty in an effort to cool their high-profile dispute over banking secrecy laws. (Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Maureen Bavdek)