Swiss Bank Charged With Aiding Tax Evasion

This is about a month old but I came across it today and couldn't find anything in the ATS search.

I't would seem that one of the oldest banks in the world is now being charged with tax evasion.

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Wegelin & Co., the 270-year-old private bank, became the first Swiss lender to face criminal charges in a broadening U.S. crackdown on offshore firms suspected of helping Americans evade taxes. Wegelin helped Americans hide more than $1.2 billion in assets and evade U.S. taxes, according to an indictment filed yesterday in federal court in New York. The new charges expand on earlier ones filed Jan. 3 against three bankers at Wegelin’s Zurich branch accused of conspiring to help U.S. clients cheat on their taxes.

Wegelin was one of at least 11 banks under criminal investigation by the Justice Department’s tax division.

It would seem that the US is trying to set a tone here essentiaslly saying that they will go after foreign banks if needed.

Bryan Skarlatos, a tax attorney in New York, said the indictment is an important step because it demonstrates the government’s willingness to indict a foreign bank. “The indictment shows that the U.S. government will indict a Swiss bank if they don’t get cooperation,” said Skarlatos of Kostelanetz & Fink LLP. “It’s symbolic in that the United States is saying that if a Swiss bank doesn’t cooperate, it will be indicted. It puts pressure on other Swiss banks to cooperate.”

The Federal government then seized 16 million from the US branches of this bank. Apparently the Swiss bank is at the moment selling the company to Raiffeisen Group, another Swiss bank. This was prompted after clients pulled over 4 billion ($4.35 bill) Swiss Francs out of their accounts.

ZURICH, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The break-up of Switzerland's oldest bank Wegelin, involved in a row with U.S. authorities over tax cheats, became necessary when clients pulled 4 billion Swiss francs ($4.35 billion) of wealth, Der Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday, citing unspecified sources. Under pressure from the investigation, the 270-year-old institution moved assets of 21 billion Swiss francs ($22.9 billion) to a subsidiary Notenstein Privatbank, which was then bought by cooperative bank Raiffeisen.

The fact that this is happening should be no surprise.

Prosecutors said that Wegelin and the three bankers wooed U.S. clients fleeing UBS, the largest Swiss bank. UBS avoided U.S. prosecution in 2009 by admitting it aided tax evasion, paying $780 million and handing over data on 250 accounts. It later disclosed information on about 4,450 more accounts.

Berne has been lobbying for a year to get the investigations dropped in return for the payment of a hefty fine and the transfer of names of thousands of U.S. bank clients.

S#&T like this makes me sick. After that I have nothing left to say.

Sources:
www.reuters.com...
www.businessweek.com...

El oh el.

What happens when they find out all the banks are operating criminally in some form or the other?



Ah.... They just go after certain ones....


Interesting.

In order for a Swiss bank, or any other foreign bank accepting American funds to "aid tax evasion", those foreign banks would necessarily have to assess a tax liability, and to do such a thing would be criminal. Consider that. Not a single bank or individual with a bank has been granted any lawful authority to assess any resident within the United States tax liability.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


This is true but that doesn't mean that people can't openly share their tax information if the company can help offer a way around it. The bank knew the clients, of three years ago, had a history of tax fraud before they took them on. The truth of the matter is that crime does pay. These people knew it.

Originally posted by openeyeswideshut
reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux

 

This is true but that doesn't mean that people can't openly share their tax information if the company can help offer a way around it.

The purpose of keeping money in a Swiss bank account is the protection of privacy that comes with it. Unlike American banks where all kinds of personal information is required, including the criminal and fraudulent coercion to surrender a Social Security Number, Swiss Bank accounts do not make these demands making it next to impossible for the IRS to determine how much wealth is being stored in that bank. This is not "openly" sharing tax information, this is simply viewing the so called "Personal Income Tax" as irrelevant to the business being done between banker and depositor.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


So does that give that person a right to pay off someone to hide the amount of money that they make in a year.

It takes a min deposit of 300 000 dollars to open up an account with Wegelin. We are not talking petty cash here. This company knew what it was doing when it helped hide the money. If you are accepting people who have already been pointed out by the government as criminals. Then you help them further in their quest to keep their millions of dollars in their pockets. That in MY mind is criminal. These people are not paying the billions owed because they have 300 000 dollars cash to start up an account that lets them hide their money. So all they are doing is paying off a private corporation less so that they can keep more money. Quit trying to sugar coat it.

reply to post by openeyeswideshut

So does that give that person a right to pay off someone to hide the amount of money that they make in a year.

Banks the world over offer cash incentives to deposit wealth in their banks. Indeed, the interest accrued on a savings account is intended to be an incentive to build a savings account. Of course, when the interest rates offered are lower than the rate of inflation then the intended incentive is moot. The point is offering cash incentives to gain more depositors is not a criminal action.

What you are doing is necessarily assessing the tax liability of those American's depositing money into this Swiss bank, and you no more have any lawful authority to assess that tax liability than any bank does.

reply to post by openeyeswideshut


I'm torn here. It's nice to see rich folks get busted for cheating on their taxes.. but I have to wonder. Why is Switzerland allowing the USA to rape their banking institutions? If the Swiss have no banking, what are they to be known for?

Since when is a Swiss business subject to U.S. laws? Ridiculous. The U.S. government thinks it has unlimited reach over the entire planet now? Seriously, it is time to stop these criminals in Washington.

Originally posted by Rockpuck
reply to post by openeyeswideshut

 

If the Swiss have no banking, what are they to be known for?

They will still have their watches and army knives

Originally posted by Rockpuck
reply to post by openeyeswideshut

 

I'm torn here. It's nice to see rich folks get busted for cheating on their taxes.. but I have to wonder. Why is Switzerland allowing the USA to rape their banking institutions? If the Swiss have no banking, what are they to be known for?

Let's say I won that lottery tonight. I would move ALL that cash offshore in a New York minute, and I would go with it. Switzerland has some nice scenery.

Originally posted by randomtangentsrme

Originally posted by Rockpuck
reply to post by openeyeswideshut

 

If the Swiss have no banking, what are they to be known for?

They will still have their watches and army knives

Cheese, too.

Originally posted by AwakeinNM

Originally posted by Rockpuck
reply to post by openeyeswideshut

 

I'm torn here. It's nice to see rich folks get busted for cheating on their taxes.. but I have to wonder. Why is Switzerland allowing the USA to rape their banking institutions? If the Swiss have no banking, what are they to be known for?

Let's say I won that lottery tonight. I would move ALL that cash offshore in a New York minute, and I would go with it. Switzerland has some nice scenery.

Did you hear that knock on your door a few minutes ago? That was the IRS....

LOL

The point is offering cash incentives to gain more depositors is not a criminal action.

Just because something isn't criminal doesn't mean that it isn't immoral or that it should be legal. Hiding 1.2 billion dollars behind yellow tape is still hiding 1.2 billion dollars behind yellow tape no matter if the law was set up to protect those people or not. That is A LOT of cash that could be going into schools or public assistance(thanks to obama its goin back to the banks anyways but thats not the point). It was something that was set up by the swiss bankers to gain a "corporate edge" over other places. attracting those customers that can deposit 300 grand cash into their bank accounts. It's assisting those who can afford white collar crime so they dont have to pay their taxes.

The point is those "cash incentives" came in the form of "tax rebates" that get hid because of laws that they set up so people could do that. It may not be illegal but it most certainly is criminal.

reply to post by openeyeswideshut


Your disingenuousness is blatant when you place quotes around the phrase cash incentive so that you can link this quoted phrase to yet another of which you claim are "tax rebates". The cash incentives offered by Swiss banks is not at all "tax rebates" and here your disingenuousness is almost at its worst. It would be at its worst if you hadn't begun your post by declaring that just because something isn't criminal doesn't mean it should be legal.

Legality will never command respect until it is wholly aligned with what is lawful. Under law, only that which is criminal is illegal. Your disingenuousness here is rooted in your own salivating embrace of plunder. You eye another mans wealth and see it as nothing more than funds to be plundered for wealth redistribution, without regard to the rights of the person who created that wealth to begin with.