US judges have approved special summonses to obtain account and identity information about US clients of Butterfield Bank in a hunt for tax dodgers, a US newspaper reported last night.

The website of USA Today cited prosecutors as saying that federal judges had approved the so-called “John Doe summonses” to be served on four US banks and one London-based bank, where Butterfield maintains correspondent accounts to service US clients. The five banks are Bank of New York Mellon, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, HSBC Bank and Bank of America.

The probe also involves correspondent accounts maintained by Swiss bank Zurcher Kantonalbank.

USA Today reported that US tax authority the IRS has used John Does summonses to obtain information about possible tax fraud by individuals whose identities are unknown. The tax agency and Department of Justice has relied on the legal tactic during their continuing crackdown on offshore tax evasion.

A Butterfield spokesman was unavailable for comment last night.