5-hour Energy billionaire named in Senate Swiss bank tax probe

• Billionaire 5-hour Energy entrepreneur Manoj Bhargava maintained allegedly undeclared bank accounts worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the Swiss bank Pictet, a Senate committee chairman wrote in a letter to the bank's managing partner.
• The letter concerned an individual identified only as "Person 1," but CNBC's reporting linked it to Bhargava.
• Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote that the allegations against Bhargava (Person 1) and another Person 2, if true, "could involve potentially the largest individual FBAR penalty in U.S. history."

WASHINGTON — Billionaire 5-hour Energy entrepreneur Manoj Bhargava maintained allegedly undeclared bank accounts worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the Swiss bank Pictet, according to documents cited by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in a letter sent Wednesday to the bank's managing partner in Geneva.

The letter, which seeks information as part of an ongoing committee investigation, did not name Bhargava, instead referring to him as "Person 1." But according to a source familiar with the investigation and documents reviewed by CNBC, Bhargava was the account holder at issue. 

Wyden says he has received documents about an alleged scheme to avoid U.S. taxes on a personal fortune largely built on the sale of the tiny bottles of highly caffeinated liquid at retail points of sale across the country.

"According to records reviewed by the Committee, Person 1 has been a Pictet client for at least fifteen years," Wyden wrote.

The letter said Person 1's account (that CNBC's reporting linked to Bhargava) received a deposit of $255 million in 2013, but the account was later zeroed out at the end of that year.

Wyden laid out allegations that "the documents explicitly