The relative lightness of his punishment, reports said, was due to his speedy guilty plea and co-operation with legal authorities over the matter.

Paul Zabczuk, 55, became the seventh former UBS client to avoid jail out of ten prosecutions.. Reports said that dozens more prosecutions are expected in the coming months.

Zabczuk, an oil industry supplier from Woodland Hills, Texas, used four secret accounts set up by UBS in the Bahamas and Switzerland to hide assets from 1999 until 2009, according to court records. One method he used to access money was to transfer funds to China for the purchase of antiques, which were then shipped to him in Texas for his own use or to be sold.

In October 2009, Zabzcuk attempted to voluntarily disclose his illegal accounts to the Internal Revenue Service under a program that would allow him to avoid prosecution – a move taken by around 15,000 other offshore account holders. But he was rejected because the IRS had already obtained Zabzcuk's name from UBS, leading to his agreement to plead guilty to filing a false tax return and the disclosure of Swiss bankers who had advised him, reports said.

Zabczuk has already begun paying the government $832,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest, which will require that he sell his Texas home.