Swiss to Stop UBS Handing over Data in US Tax Row

[Octafish]

Source: Reuters

by Lisa Jucca
Published on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 by Reuters

ZURICH - Switzerland has vowed to prevent UBS from handing over client information to U.S. authorities, in an attempt to defend bank secrecy, saying a tax case targeting its main bank is souring diplomatic ties.

The logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen at the company's office at the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich July 1, 2009. REUTERS/Arnd WiegmannWealth management giant UBS is facing a court hearing in Miami next week after refusing to disclose data on 52,000 Americans holders of secret Swiss bank accounts to U.S. tax authorities.

The Swiss Justice Ministry said on Wednesday that Swiss law prevents UBS from handing over client information and the government would seize UBS client data, if necessary, to stop that happening.

The case, which comes amid a global fight against tax cheats supported by the U.S. administration, has damaged the UBS brand and could result in an expensive settlement for the bank at a time when the bank needs to focus on restructuring.

"Switzerland will use its legal authority to ensure that the bank cannot be pressured to transmit the information illegally, including if necessary by issuing an order taking effective control of the data at UBS," the Swiss government said in a response to U.S. authorities filed in Miami on Tuesday.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE5672DM20090708

---

This development may be due in no small part to the work of Mr. Phil "The GOP Meyer Lansky" Gramm (R-Bagman) and his friends.

[pinniped]

1. Come on US tax cheats. The US needs your money to fund the war machine.

.

[Octafish]

6. Why the Pentagon Can’t Put America Back to Work

Shovel ready.

Why the Pentagon Can't Put America Back to Work

Is the Next Defense Budget a Stimulus Package?

by Frida Berrigan
Published on Thursday, March 12, 2009 by TomDispatch.com

EXCERPT...

At the end of February, another huge "stimulus" package was announced but generated almost no comment, controversy, or argument. The defense industry received its own special stimulus package -- news of the dollars available for the Pentagon budget in 2010; and at nearly $700 billion (when all the bits and pieces are added in), it's almost as big as the Obama economic package and sure to be a lot less effective.

Despite the sort of economic maelstrom not seen in generations, the defense industry, insulated by an enduring conviction that war spending stimulates the economy, remains almost impervious to budget cuts. To understand why military spending is no longer a stimulus driver means putting aside memories of Rosie the Riveter and the sepia-hued worker on the bomber assembly line and remembering instead that the Great Depression came before "the Good War," not the other way around. In World War II, it's also important to recall, the massive military buildup was labor intensive, employed millions, and was accompanied by rationing, austerity, and very high taxes.

This time around, we began with boom years and spent our way into the breach, in significant part by launching unnecessary, profligate wars. Meanwhile, President George W. Bush cut taxes at a more than peacetime pace and borrowed like an addicted gambler on a losing streak to underwrite his wars of choice, including his Global War on Terror. If the former president's nearly trillion dollar (and counting) global war got us into this mess, by simple logic it's not likely to bail us out as well.

Riding the Slide to Billions

While the good times rolled during the long slide from surplus to deficit, from no war to global war, it wasn't just the Merrill Lynches and subprime mortgage giants that cleaned up. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman -- the top three defense contractors -- had a ball, too.

In 2002, the first full year of what came to be known as the Global War on Terror, for instance, those three companies -- ranking first, second, and third on the Pentagon's list of top ten contractors -- split $42 billion in contract awards, more than two-thirds of the $67 billion distributed among the top 10 Pentagon contractors.

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/12-11

Shovels, I once believed, were the first things wielded to build a better world.

[KansDem]

23. Don't you mean, "...*your* war machine"?

Someone's making money off this bogus war and it sure isn't anyone I know!

[mbperrin]

2. Because the UBS US operations would then be in violation of US laws,

time to seize some assets and shut down a RICO operation.

[Octafish]

7. UBS and the Diamond Smuggler

Agree wholeheartedly, mbperrin. RICO's just the thing...

UBS and the Diamond Smuggler

The private-banking scandal that is rocking Swiss finance began with illegal diamonds, a tube of toothpaste, and a rogue American banker. An exclusive look inside the low end of high finance.

by Paul Sullivan
October 2008 Issue

Brad Birkenfeld was a frequent trans-­Atlantic flier. He lived and worked in Switzerland, dividing his time between an apartment in Geneva and a house in Zermatt, an Alpine village at the base of the Matterhorn. But his biggest client was in California, and however gruel­ing the trip through nine time zones was, it was worth it. ­Without that client’s $200 million to manage, Birkenfeld’s position in the private-banking division of UBS would have been far less secure.
Though Birkenfeld’s job title was innocuous enough—director at the Swiss bank—his job since October 2001 was not. He helped the very rich hide tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars from U.S. tax authorities. He was willing to go the extra mile for his clients, so he didn’t blink when one of them asked him to do something that was blatantly illegal by any country’s standard: Buy diamonds with secret Swiss funds and bring them into the U.S. undeclared and undetected.

This would have been a challenge at any time, but in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, getting the diamonds into the U.S. seemed nearly impossible. If Birkenfeld put the diamonds in his carry-on bag and a screener found them, he would have to exhaust his powers of persuasion concocting a story about how he had forgotten to declare hundreds of thousands of dollars in precious stones.

Yet declaring them wasn’t an option. That would have created a paper trail. Since the money that purchased the jewels was unknown to U.S. tax authorities, the diamonds had to be as well. To get them into the country, Birkenfeld had only one option. He had to smuggle them in.

So Brad Birkenfeld, a banker at one of the most prestigious institutions in global finance, began jamming his clients’ loose diamonds into a tube of toothpaste. Believing he had successfully masked the stones from security screeners, he boarded his flight. He was wrong about the disguise, though. Unlike cocaine, diamonds look exactly the same in an X-ray as they do in plain sight, and toothpaste certainly doesn’t mask that. Either the security screener wasn’t paying attention or he thought the shiny bits were very large whitening crystals.

As Birkenfeld strolled out of the airport onto U.S. soil, he had no idea how lucky he had been. Like a high-end mule, he delivered the tube of toothpaste to his client without incident. His audacious scheme had worked—until it didn’t.

It took seven years, but on a humid South Florida morning in June, Birkenfeld was finally called to account. Bulked up, with a goatee on his tan face, he was sandwiched between his two attorneys as they entered federal court in Fort Lauderdale. He looked nothing like a smuggler or, for that matter, a jet-setting private banker. He most closely resembled a once-great high-school athlete whose best days were behind him. He had, however, packed the courtroom to capacity. He was a star criminal.

CONTINUED...

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/international-news/portfolio/2008/09/18/UBS-Diamond-Smuggling-Scandal

As the ownership class is involved in money laundering, who knows what it will take to get Corporate McPravda to cover this important news.

[AngryAmish]

9. Credit Suisse just puts the diamonds in a diplomatic pouch

Or so I heard.

[formercia]

19. Diamonds are invisible to X-rays

If the person manning the security scanner looked carefully, they might see what looks like bubbles in the toothpaste.

http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-a-Diamond-is-Real

"# Have the diamond x-rayed. Real diamonds do not show up on an x-ray, glass, cubic zirconium and crystals all have slightly radiopaque quailities, diamonds are radiolucent."

[NavyMom]

3. If the Swiss government intervene then the US

should take UBS right to operate in the US or put them on the list of money laundering banks which can no longer operate in this country. Let's see these tax cheats TRY to get to their money when they want too, if a origination bank is put on ALL transfers this will make them take notice, it is after all how the make their money.

[woodsprite]

4. Exactly what I was thinking too. The US should throw the book at them.

We've got the laws in place - Use 'em!

(edited because I still can't spell, even after my coffee this a.m.)

[architect359]

8. So do the Swiss.

They have their laws in place too. It looks like they aim to throw their book at us.

So where does that leave everybody? A bunch of book throwing so and so's?

[MadAsHell]

10. It becomes more than a tit-for-tat situation

In this case, the US has all the trump. When banks are in the business of making money from money, they can always be put in a position through regulation of losing money.

The US can ban UBS from operating on our shores and they can make it a lot more difficult for US citizens to use UBS by monitoring, banning, taxing or restricting money transfers and more. If UBS wants to be an international bank, they can do it somewhere else.

[architect359]

22. I agree to a degree

UBS can still be an international bank by not having to do business in this country, in principal. To call on the swiss bank to respect our laws and not respect their laws is something that should be considered in this argument. It just seems that we still have this attitude that our laws trumps all, no?

[closeupready]

28. I don't understand. Can you explain what you mean?

Thanks.

[pnwmom]

5. Welcome to DU, NavyMom! n/t

[Joanne98]

11. Swiss ready to seize UBS data to stifle Washington

Source: AP


Swiss government says it would seize UBS client data to prevent any handover to US authorities

BERN, Switzerland (AP) -- Switzerland's government said Wednesday it would forbid the Swiss bank UBS AG from complying with any court-ordered transfer of data on tens of thousands of American clients to the U.S. government, and would consider seizing documents to prevent that.

The statement was the strongest yet by Swiss authorities locked in a battle with the U.S. Justice Department over the identities of more than 50,000 American clients at UBS.

The case in the federal district court in Miami has become a focal point of Washington's efforts to crack down on tax evasion and the foreign banks that help wealthy Americans send money overseas. But UBS and the Swiss government say handing over the names would violate Swiss law and subject bank employees to criminal prosecution in Switzerland.

"Swiss law prohibits UBS from complying with a possible order by the court in Miami to hand over the client information," the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement, describing its latest filing with the Miami court.

It said the bank would not be in a position to comply, anyhow, since "all the necessary measures should be taken to prevent UBS from handing over the information on the 52,000 account holders demanded in the U.S. civil proceeding."


Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Swiss-ready-to-seize-UBS-data-apf-3510281106.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

---

If you think we should bomb Switzerland rec this thread.

[NJmaverick]

12. I think the US should enact sanctions against Switzerland

I have no use for countries getting rich by helping wealthy US citizens commit crimes

[truedelphi]

20. Uh yeah the big bad USA can just decide to quit

Allowing them to purchase all the goods that we manufacture.

And we should stop selling them chocolate and those neat watches we make as well.

[thunder rising]

13. Swiss ... a society funded by the underworld and criminals. Please give me an example to otherwise

change that statement.

What's the Republicans favorite saying, "If you have done nothing wrong, then there's nothing to hide." As they stuff their blood money into Swiss accounts.

[destes]

16. Sorry, no example available.

Now it's a new game: our underworld vs your underworld. Where's Eliot Ness when you need him? Or even the godfather, after all, like he said, "we're all reasonable men here."

[drm604]

14. When I read the first part of your post I was going to reply that we should bomb or invade them,

but you beat me to it.

Obviously any suggestion of military force is tongue in cheek, but surely there's something that could be done? Are there any sanctions the world could impose on them?

If we could get the cooperation of other countries, could we stop the movement of funds in and out of Switzerland, or would that cause other problems?

[FarCenter]

15. Its all part of the financial war between Europe and the US/UK

The Swiss have pointed out that the Anglo/American tax havens of Jersey Island, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Bermuda, etc, aren't being asked to become transparent.

[NJmaverick]

17. I am not sure "we are not the only criminal facilitators"

is a sound defense

[Lasher]

18. UBS wants to pay a fine instead of releasing the rest of the names.

We shouldn't settle for that.

[Blue_Tires]

21. greedy, obstructionist swiss.....

[Mudoria]

24. I believe the Swiss were quite happy to accept Nazi treasure

during WW2 looted from murdered Jews and other riches stolen from eastern Europe. Glad to see they haven't changed much in the last sixty odd years. They still accept loot only this time from the fuckers that have looted the US economy.

[Octafish]

27. Allen Dulles of Bay of Pigs and Warren Commission fame worked there throughout WW2.

He used his contacts to spring his future career forward.
Before the war, he and his friends Averell Harriman and Prescott Bush also helped their German friends.

Know your BFEE: Spawn of Wall Street and the Third Reich

[sythe200]

25. Has anyone considered that maybe we shouldn't have such an abusive tax code that drives wealth

producers to hide their assets from money grabbing politicians?

[Octafish]

26. An interesting perspective shared by George W Bush.

Bush thinks rich people can afford to hire accountants and avoid taxes.
That, the little traitor explained, is why he never raised taxes on them.

Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society, Holmes said.

Bush sees the rich skipping out on taxes

By Steve Benen
CrooksandLiars.com
Sunday Feb 10, 2008 8:22am

There were quite a few interesting gems in the president's Fox News interview over the weekend, but this one stood out for me:

WALLACE: How does overcome all of that and...

BUSH: Because there's two big issues. One is, who's going to keep your taxes low? Most Americans feel overtaxed and I promise you the Democrat party is going to field a candidate who says I'm going to raise your tax.

If they're going to say, oh, we're only going to tax the rich people, but most people in America understand that the rich people hire good accountants and figure out how not to necessarily pay all the taxes and the middle class gets stuck.

We've had -- we've been through this drill before. We're only going to tax the rich and all you have to do is look at the history of that kind of language and see who gets stuck with the bill.

Does this make any sense at all? Wealthy people hire accountants, so the government should leave their tax rates alone?

As Isaac Chotiner put it, "The Democrats want to raise rates on the wealthiest Americans, but Bush is saying that in fact this will screw the middle class because the rich have ways to avoid paying taxes. The obvious question is, then, why has Bush spent so much time giving tax cuts to the rich?!?!"

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/02/11/bush-sees-the-rich-skipping-out-on-taxes

Get more here:

Know your BFEE: Goldmine Sacked or The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One

PS: Welcome to Du, sythe200.

[skipos]

29. Wow, that is a seriously stupid post.

Good work.

[closeupready]

30. Ah, yup.

Harder than it looks, I'm sure.

[closeupready]

31. So you're saying that the laws make outlaws out of those who want to break them.

:rofl: How ridiculous.