Swiss Banks

[Boats]

CSPAN is reporting that the Swiss Banks knowingly particapted in fraud - covering up monies deposited by over 300 US person's (names given to the state dept). Don't have all the details but something major is breaking on this issue.

Congress can't get much more out of the Swiss being cross-examined as his countries laws do not allow him to give out certain pieces of key information. But they knew up front what they were doing was against the US Law. They admitted that.

I can't wait to get more details on this issue as many have run to the Swiss to bury monies not wanting them to be disclosed. Ah every Dog has their day. This will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I'm sure one or more of our guys will find more details on this subject.

[Boats]

Swiss Banking Giant to Pay $780 Million to Settle U.S. Fraud Allegations
UBS will pay $780 million in fines, penalties, interest and restitution for conspiring to create sham accounts to hide the assets of United States clients from the U.S. government.

Banking giant UBS has agreed to pay $780 million and turn over once-secret Swiss banking records to settle allegations it conspired to defraud the U.S. government of taxes owed by thousands of American clients.

As part of the deal struck in a federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, UBS has made the unprecedented step of agreeing to turn over to the U.S. government immediately account information for U.S. customers of the bank's cross-border business.

In doing so, federal authorities have struck a big crack in Switzerland's vaunted bank secrecy laws.

UBS will pay $780 million in fines, penalties, interest and restitution for conspiring to create sham accounts to hide from the U.S. government the assets of American clients.

"We accept full responsibility for these improper activities," Peter Kurer, chairman of Swiss-based UBS AG, said in a statement. He added that the bank was determined to abide by the terms of the deal with U.S. criminal and securities officials.

"Client confidentiality, to which UBS remains committed, was never designed to protect fraudulent acts or the identity of those clients, who, with the active assistance of bank personnel, misused the confidentiality protections," he said Wednesday.

Approximately 17,000 American clients concealed their UBS accounts from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. tax-collection agency, hiding assets of roughly $20 billion in total, U.S. officials said.

According to U.S. officials, when an acquisition in 2000 of a U.S. company brought UBS a host of new American clients, the bank set about to evade new reporting requirements for those clients. To do so, UBS executives helped U.S. taxpayers open new accounts in the names of sham entities.

Prosecutors contend that UBS executives used encrypted software and other counter-surveillance techniques to prevent anyone from detecting that they were actively marketing Swiss bank secrecy, and tax evasion, to American taxpayers.

The clients, in turn, filed false tax returns that omitted the income they earned in their Swiss accounts, according to the court papers.

Federal officials said they had pulled aside a veil of secrecy that hid a corrupt international banking practice.

"This was not a mere compliance oversight, but rather a knowing crime motivated by greed and disrespect for the law," said Alexander Acosta, U.S. attorney for southern Florida.

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman warned U.S. taxpayers hiding money overseas that it was time to come clean with the agency.

"People who have hidden unreported income offshore need to get right with their government.

They should come forward and take advantage of our voluntary disclosure process," Shulman said.

Democratic Sen. Carl Levin has estimated that abusive tax shelters and hidden offshore accounts cost the U.S. government nearly $100 billion a year in lost tax revenue.

Prosecutors still are hunting for UBS executive Raoul Weil, who was indicted in November 2008 on charges he conspired to defraud the government with his management of the bank's cross-border business.

In June 2008 former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to a similar charge.

If UBS fails to turn over the clients' information, or stops cooperating with authorities, federal prosecutors could re-file charges against the bank.

Under the deal, UBS also will stop engaging in the type of cross-border banking business that got them into trouble.

[Boats]

Secret Swiss bank accounts under threat

By Tony Paterson in Berlin


Friday, 20 February 2009
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Switzerland pledged to maintain its tradition of banking secrecy yesterday after its authorities took the unprecedented step of revealing to US investigators the names of up to 300 American clients of troubled UBS bank who were suspected of tax fraud.


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In what seemed a desperate attempt to limit damage from the disclosure, the Swiss President, Hans-Rudolf Merz, issued a statement proclaiming: "Banking secrecy, ladies and gentlemen, remains intact."

Mr Merz admitted Swiss authorities had delivered to US investigators the files of between 250 and 300 UBS customers suspected of tax fraud during a transfer in the Swiss capital, Bern.

The transaction took place early on Thursday to meet a deadline the US had set for Switzerland to meet its demands. UBS, the largest Swiss bank, began negotiations with the US last year after allegations emerged that the bank had helped up to 17,000 Americans conceal about $20bn (£14bn).

Mr Merz , UBS and Switzerland's financial regulator were adamant yesterday that the disclosure did not amount to a blatant infringement of the country's tradition of banking secrecy because it concerned a small number of foreign customers suspected of tax fraud rather than tax evasion.

Swiss law allows banking secrecy to be lifted in cases where individuals are suspected of having deliberately defrauded tax authorities, as opposed to cases where customers have failed to declare all of their assets.

Mr Merz justified the distinction and said banking secrecy protected privacy but "does not protect tax fraudsters". The unprecedented disclosures shocked Swiss banking experts.

Many said the decision to bypass the courts and surrender the names of clients to tax investigators seriously undermined a banking principle conceived in the Middle Ages which had enabled Switzerland to become one of the world's wealthiest nations.

Hans Geiger, a professor of banking at Zurich University, said UBS clients had lost security and trust as a result of the disclosures: "This so-called agreement is a brutal demonstration of why banking secrecy should be guaranteed under the Swiss constitution."

The Swiss Bankers' Association condemned the disclosures and said the names of the clients had been handed over before the legal process initiated last year between the US and Switzerland had been finalised.

Rainer Schweizer, a professor of law at Switzerland's St Gallen University, said the disclosure had shaken the foundations of the Swiss legal system.

Other experts declared the disclosure demonstrated that undeclared financial assets were no longer safe in Switzerland.

Mark Pieth, a Swiss professor and an investigator of corruption in the UN Iraq oil-for-food programme, accused the US of blackmailing Switzerland into revealing the UBS client names.

The disclosure follows months of pressure from the US tax authorities and the US Justice Department which had issued a summons demanding that the names of the suspected clients be revealed. Under the terms of a so-called deferred prosecution agreement, UBS and its executives could have been indicted had the Swiss bank refused to comply.

The Justice Department indicted a former UBS official in May last year and in November, Raoul Weil, one of the bank's senior executives was also indicted. US officials had warned that other banking executives could face similar charges.

Mr Merz conceded yesterday that further US indictments of senior UBS staff along with a threatened wider inquiry into the ailing bank's business practices in America would have posed a threat to the Swiss economy during the global economic downturn.

300

The potential number of US clients of UBS bank whose names were revealed as part of a tax fraud investigation.

[sn-e3]

I never trusted a country who has to hide accounts. The swiss have been screwing people and countrys for years. they live off the money of others and steal from the dead I'm talking about the jews that had money in swiss accounts even with secret account numbers the swiss have denide surviving members of thier family their money. just my opinion.