The investigation into the breadth and depth of UBS’s offshore private banking services on behalf of wealthy Americans is now closing in on senior and midlevel executives and bankers, and could result in one or more indictments, according to people close to the situation in reports just out this week. The latest on the ongoing probe that, so far, appears to have identified more than 70 people it might target.

Investigators are sifting through more than 70 names and related account details of American clients provided by UBS over the last few months to the Justice Department, which has passed the details to the Internal Revenue Service for further scrutiny. The Justice Department and the I.R.S. plan to build both civil and criminal tax-evasion cases against some of the clients, these people said.

The developments put new pressure on UBS, the Swiss banking giant, which is struggling under heavy subprime losses, and on Switzerland’s centuries-old tradition of banking secrecy. The tradition is being intensely scrutinized by the United States and Europe to determine if it helps clients evade taxes illegally. Amid the credit crisis propelled by the subprime collapse, the Swiss government has extended to UBS a $60 billion bailout and taken a 9 percent stake.

Prosecutors suspect that UBS, which is based in Zurich and has extensive operations in the United States, illegally helped American clients hide $20 billion in secret offshore accounts, thereby evading $300 million a year in taxes from 2000 to 2007. While tax evasion is legal in Switzerland, it is not in the United States, a difference that has put the bank at odds with American regulators and authorities. UBS no longer offers the services, which it calls cross-border private banking services for United States clients.

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