January 3, 2010 11:21 AM
Bradley Birkenfeld, a former private banker with the Swiss bank UBS, claims to have done something never done before: reveal Swiss banking secrets and expose US tax cheaters.
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1) Geneva does not have 200'000 residents, but 450'000.
2) There are 142 licenced banks in Geneva, not 124.
3) Banking secrecy is certainly not as air-tight, as he implies ("only the banker and the bank itself" have the right to the client's information). He should know that a banker's obligation to respect his/her clients' privacy is not absolute, and no protection is afforded to criminals. In particular, there is a duty for banks to provide information under the following circumstances :
?civil proceedings (inheritance or divorce, for instance);
?debt recovery and bankruptcy proceedings;
?criminal proceedings (money laundering, association with a criminal organization, theft, tax fraud, blackmail, etc.). If circumstantial evidence gives rise to a suspicion that the financial assets are the proceeds of a crime, then financial institutions may inform the authorities without thereby breaching bank-client confidentiality; if the suspicion is well-founded, they must inform the Swiss Money Laundering Reporting Office;
?international administrative and judicial assistance proceedings.
Steve Kroft should have done a better job at preparing his interview, he would have realized how he was manipulated, and the number of unfounded and defamatory clichés his introduction to this program contained.
1) Geneva does not have 200'000 residents, but 450'000.
2) There are 142 licenced banks in Geneva, not 124.
3) Banking secrecy is certainly not as air-tight, as he implies ("only the banker and the bank itself" have the right to the client's information). He should know that a banker's obligation to respect his/her clients' privacy is not absolute, and no protection is afforded to criminals. In particular, there is a duty for banks to provide information under the following circumstances :
?civil proceedings (inheritance or divorce, for instance);
?debt recovery and bankruptcy proceedings;
?criminal proceedings (money laundering, association with a criminal organization, theft, tax fraud, blackmail, etc.). If circumstantial evidence gives rise to a suspicion that the financial assets are the proceeds of a crime, then financial institutions may inform the authorities without thereby breaching bank-client confidentiality; if the suspicion is well-founded, they must inform the Swiss Money Laundering Reporting Office;
?international administrative and judicial assistance proceedings.
Steve Kroft should have done a better job at preparing his interview, he would have realized how he was manipulated, and the number of unfounded and defamatory clichés his introduction to this program contained.
1) Mr Birkenfeld is not the first Swiss bank employee to come forward to a foreign country tax authority and give in information concerning the identity of some of the bank's clients. Several Swiss bank employees have in the past sold this kind of information. Recently an IT employee has sold to french tax authorities information on more than 30'000 french clients having accounts with HSBC in Switzerland.
2)Swiss Banking Swiss secrecy laws don't protect criminals. In fact Switzerland has one of the most severe anti-money laundering legislation. Swiss courts generally collaborate with foreign jurisdiction and help allow the banking secrecy to be lifted if there is a reasonable suspicion that the proceeds of a crime are deposited on a Swiss bank account.
3) Switzerland is in the process of signing the standard OECD agreement on tax information exchange with several countries including the US