A New York toy dealer who hid money at Zurich-based UBS and another Swiss bank has provided federal investigators a new lead in their growing crackdown on Swiss banks that help clients evade federal taxes.

Jeffrey P. Chernick, a Stanfordville, N.Y.-based toy company representative, pleaded guilty in federal court in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday to filing a false tax return that failed to disclose $8 million hidden in offshore Swiss accounts at UBS and a second Swiss bank. Previously the investigation had focused primarily on UBS.

Chernick, 70, is cooperating with federal investigators, who refer in court papers to an unidentified Zurich-based bank, a ``Swiss bank executive'' and a ``Swiss attorney'' who allegedly helped him hide money from the Internal Revenue Service.

Jeffrey H. Sloman, the acting U.S. attorney for Miami, said in a statement that the government's investigation into the case is continuing.

Chernick admitted using the secret offshore accounts to hide sales commissions he was paid by Hong Kong and Chinese toy makers, thus avoiding U.S. income taxes, according to court papers.

He faces up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He will also have to settle with the IRS on back taxes, penalties, and interest owed. Chernick's attorney, Douglas M. Tween, of Baker & McKenzie in New York, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

According to court papers, investigators relied on ``records obtained from UBS AG in Switzerland'' to learn that Chernick controlled bank accounts in the name of a Hong Kong corporation, Simba International.

The case appears to be the first to lead prosecutors beyond Zurich-based UBS, which in February turned over the names of some 250 to 300 U.S. citizens as part of a settlement with the federal government aimed at avoiding criminal charges. UBS, the sponsor of Art Basel Miami Beach, also paid a fine of $780 million to avoid criminal prosecution for helping U.S. taxpayers hide money offshore.

The latest case comes as U.S. and Swiss officials are working to settle a legal dispute over whether UBS must turn over the names of 52,000 clients with $14.8 billion in secret offshore bank accounts that weren't part of a deferred prosecution agreement between UBS and the federal government. Both UBS and the government of Switzerland have asserted that doing so would violate Swiss law.

According to court papers, Chernick -- at the urging of an unidentified ``Swiss bank executive'' -- moved some of his money from UBS to a smaller Zurich-based bank around 2003. The Swiss banker believed the smaller bank was off the radar screen of U.S. authorities, because it had no U.S. presence and hadn't signed an agreement with the IRS that subjected it to U.S. scrutiny, as UBS had under a ``qualified intermediary agreement,'' court papers say.

According to court papers, in 2008, amid publicity over the Justice Department's UBS investigation, Chernick told a Swiss attorney he wanted to voluntarily disclose his tax sins to the federal government.

Instead, the attorney and an unnamed Swiss bank executive who once worked as a manager at UBS told Chernick that a ``high-ranking Swiss government official'' could find out whether he was among the UBS customers whose names were going to be turned over to the United States, according to court papers. Chernick authorized the attorney to withdraw $45,000 from his UBS account to pay for the information, the court papers say.

A UBS spokesman declined to comment. A Swiss embassy spokeswoman said she had no knowledge of the case and couldn't comment.

Court records say Chernick went to extraordinary lengths to avoid detection, including hand-carrying checks drawn on the Swiss UBS account from Hong Kong to the United States and setting up a sham $700,000 loan between his Hong Kong company, Simba, and a second Hong Kong entity in order to repatriate funds into the United States to purchase property next to his home in New York.

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