TIMELINE-UBS in preliminary deal on U.S. tax case

July 31 (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it had reached an agreement in principle with Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX)(UBS.N) on their tax evasion dispute and hoped to hammer out the details of a settlement in a week. [ID:nN31419197] [ID:nLV78786]

Following is a timeline of recent events at UBS:

April 1, 2008 -- Doubles its writedowns, dumps its chairman, Marcel Ospel, and seeks more emergency capital. It proposes its lawyer, Peter Kurer, as Ospel's successor.

May 6 -- Says it will axe 5,500 jobs and sell billions of dollars of ailing assets to weather the subprime crisis.

June 19 -- A former UBS banker who once smuggled a client's diamonds into the United States in a toothpaste tube pleads guilty to helping a billionaire hide $200 million from U.S. tax authorities, part of a broader tax evasion probe of UBS.

Oct. 16 -- Announces it is to get 6 billion francs from the Swiss government for a 9.3 percent stake and is to unload $60 billion of toxic assets into a new central bank fund.

Nov. 12 -- Raoul Weil, head of UBS AG's wealth management business, is charged with conspiring to help thousands of wealthy Americans hide $20 billion of assets from U.S. tax authorities in Swiss bank accounts.

Feb. 10, 2009 -- Posts a 2008 loss of 19.7 billion francs, the biggest ever loss for a Swiss company. Cuts 2,000 more jobs.

Feb. 18 - Agrees to pay $780 million and identify certain U.S. clients to settle criminal fraud charges that it assisted rich Americans to evade taxes.

Feb. 19 - U.S. tax authorities say they are still pursuing a civil lawsuit seeking to access details on 52,000 UBS clients.

Feb. 20 -- Warns that it could go out of business if it complies with an order to reveal the names of suspected U.S. tax dodgers and would require it to violate Swiss law in a manner that would expose it to penalties.

Feb. 26 - Appoints Oswald Gruebel, former head of rival Credit Suisse, as chief executive, replacing Michael Rohner.

March 4 - Chairman Peter Kurer steps down, replaced by Kaspar Villiger, a former Swiss finance minister.

March 13 - Switzerland agrees to make concessions on bank secrecy amid a global crackdown on tax evasion.

April 2 -- U.S. authorities arrest and charge an accountant in Florida in the first of what they say could be a series of tax evasion prosecutions of American clients of UBS.

April 5 - Announces worldwide travel ban for wealth management client advisers after coming under scrutiny in the U.S. tax fraud investigation.

May 5 - Confirms a first-quarter net loss of 2 billion francs on yet more writedowns and client withdrawals, and announces staff cuts of 10,000.

June 25 - Says it is offering 293.3 million new shares at a price of 13.00 francs per share, a 6.9 percent discount to the day's closing price of 13.97.

July 9 - A judge orders the U.S. government to say whether it was prepared to shut Swiss bank UBS AG in the United States.

July 10 - Gruebel sends a memorandum to the bank's top executives saying the bank could not comply with the U.S. request to disclose the identity of the 52,000 account holders.

July 14 - Christoph Bandli, President of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court which has the power to rule on data transfers, says U.S. tax officials can legitimately ask for unnamed client data if they set out a specific category of clients.

July 26 - The United States is targeting client visits by Swiss-based bankers from UBS to identify U.S. citizens with accounts at the bank who may have evaded tax, a Swiss newspaper reports.

July 28 - A U.S. client of UBS pleads guilty to using Swiss bank accounts to hide money from the U.S. taxman and says a Swiss government official received $45,000 to help cover up the fraud. Swiss prosecutors launch an investigation the next day.

July 31 - A U.S. Justice Department attorney says that the United States and UBS AG have reached an agreement in principle to settle their dispute and that a final signed accord could be ready in time for a status conference on Aug. 7. (Editing by Karen Foster)