Now that Swiss authorities have done the unthinkable: admitted to wrongdoing and handed U.S. authorities the data on over 4,000 of its American clients – how are the people of Switzerland reacting?
If the comments of Nachrichten columnist Patrik Etschmayer are anything to go by, there’s going to be hell to pay in Geneva.
For Switzerland’s Nachrichten newspaper, Patrik Etschmayer describes the content of a plea agreement between the Justice Department and one of UBS’ American clients, John McCarthy:
“In these documents, UBS shows every sign of being a criminal organization, helping tax cheats move money surreptitiously skimmed off of transactions conducted in the United States by way of the Cayman Islands, and deposited in a specially established Hong Kong front company account. McCarthy’s UBS adviser – and a Swiss attorney recommended by UBS – showed him a variety of ways to hide even more money from the U.S. government – be it in a private fund in Liechtenstein, a bank account in the British Virgin Islands or a Swiss insurance policy.
“The energy devoted by UBS representatives well into 2008, to breaking the laws of another country, a country that is by all means a democracy – is startling, even shocking.”
Then, describing what should be done, Etschmayer appears to echo the anger that many Americans feel toward our banking class and institutions deemed ‘too big to fail’:
“These people dragged UBS from being a flagship bank into a basket case requiring a government bailout that threatened to pull down the entire national economy. And now its senior officials are mixed up with criminal activities, as well. It’s high time for Swiss justice to tackle the problem. Or do crimes stop being crimes when they’re committed by ‘systemically important’ pillars of society?”
By Patrik Etschmayer
Translated By Patrik Etschmayer
August 18, 2009
Switzerland – Nachrichten – Original Article (German)
The plea agreement is 16 pages long and deals mostly with legal details, such as waiving the right to a proper trial – just what you’d expect to see when someone realizes that it would be best to confess so the prosecutor can dictate his conditions. Chief among which is the full disclosure of all documents and correspondences related to the crime.
Also mentioned in the document is that that the penalty was doubled due to the sophisticated methods by which the crimes were committed.
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