Ex-UBS client in NJ pleads guilty in IRS tax case

* Leonid Zaltsberg, 75, admits filing false tax return

* $1.3 mln penalty expected, prison possible

* UBS agreed to pay $780 million in 2009 US settlement

NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters) - A former UBS AG (UBSN.VX) client in New Jersey pleaded guilty on Thursday to concealing $2.6 million he had held in an offshore account from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said.

At a hearing in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, Leonid Zaltsberg admitted to filing a false 2003 tax return, and failing to properly report his transfer of funds to a Panamanian account that he set up in 2000 with help from a Swiss banker and non-U.S. lawyer.

The 75-year-old Milltown resident agreed to pay a $1.3 million penalty, and could face as much as three years in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 17 by U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler. Zaltsberg was released on $750,000 bond.

James DiPietro, a lawyer for the defendant, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

In February 2009, UBS admitted to criminal wrongdoing for helping U.S. clients evade taxes. It then also agreed to hand over details on more than 250 client accounts to U.S. investigators, and pay a $780 million penalty.

Six months later, it agreed to turn over names of 4,450 wealthy U.S. clients to U.S. tax investigators.

Several individual former UBS clients in the United States have pleaded guilty to tax evasion since the original UBS accord. Some were sentenced to prison and others to probation.

The case is U.S. v. Zaltsberg, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, editing by Dave Zimmerman)