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Visa ordered to turn over card information to government

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal government won a court victory over Visa International Thursday when a federal judge ruled the Internal Revenue Service may force Visa to turn over offshore credit card records.

The ruling by a judge in San Francisco came just two days after the federal government asked the court to grant the IRS a "John Doe" summons to obtain information about possible tax fraud by people whose identities are unknown.

The IRS is trying to identify people who use offshore accounts to evade their federal income taxes.

"The IRS believes that people using offshore accounts are evading billions of dollars per year in United States taxes," said Assistant Attorney General Eileen O'Connor.

The government suspects individuals are diverting assets overseas and spending the money in the United States using credit cards issued by banks in more than 30 countries. A statement released by the Justice Department Thursday said the banks are located in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Singapore, Panama, Bermuda, and numerous Caribbean nations.

The IRS summons seeks the names, addresses, social security numbers, and telephone numbers of the Visa cardholders.

Government lawyers won a similar suit against MasterCard in Miami, which gave authorities information on more than 230,000 accounts.

American Express earlier this week agreed to turn over similar records.