The Justice Department announced April 30 that a federal court in San Francisco has entered an order authorizing the Internal Revenue Service to serve a John Doe summons to Wells Fargo N.A. seeking information about U.S. taxpayers with offshore accounts at FirstCaribbean International Bank (In re Tax Liabilities of John Does, N.D. Cal., No. 13-CV-01938, order 4/29/13).

The case is the latest development in the government's ongoing efforts to identify taxpayers who hide assets offshore and the banks that help them. This marks the government's first public action against Caribbean banks, based on information obtained through IRS's Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP).