U.S.

Swiss Freeze Suspect Accounts

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 31, 2001 / 2:31 PM EST / CBS

Switzerland has blocked 24 bank accounts containing $12 million based on a U.S. list of organizations and individuals suspected of links to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an official said Wednesday.

"We have frozen 24 bank accounts based on the second list provided by President Bush," said Vera Britsch, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office.

Britsch was unable to give details on the amounts in the accounts, the banks involved or the identity of the owners.

She said the funds would be blocked for "an indefinite period" while further investigations were carried out and the Swiss prosecutor has also asked Washington to provide more information on three cases referred to on its lists.

Britsch said the new moves against bank accounts were based on a list of 39 individuals and organizations the U.S. Treasury Department named on Oct. 12 as suspected of conducting or financing terrorist activities.

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said the list includes businesses and charitable organizations that funnel money to the al-Qaida network of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS AG, said Wednesday that one of its accounts may be among the 24 blocked by the government. The account is small and used for daily banking transactions, said spokesman Michael Willi. It is one of two UBS has reported as suspicious in recent weeks, he said. Both are based in Switzerland.

Swiss federal prosecutor Valentin Roschacher said earlier that investigators had failed to find evidence connecting Swiss bank accounts to the attacks. He said 16 bank accounts were temporarily blocked, but that all but one were turned back over to their owners for lack of evidence.

Swiss officials claim the country's tightened money-laundering laws are among the toughest in the world, and say Swiss banks - despite their reputation for secrecy - are unlikely to contain significant amounts of money linked to terrorist groups.

As part of its campaign against terrorism, the United States has threatened to take action against nations that fail to freeze assets of suspected terrorists.

Indonesia said Wednesday that it too will move to freeze bank accounts with suspected links to international terrorism.

"Our intelligence agency is investigating several bank accounts," Communication Minister Syamsul Mu'arif said.

Mu'arif said a decree is needed to block suspected terrorist funds without violating Indonesia's liberal banking laws, and that it will be issued in November.

With few financial-sector controls to curb endemic corruption, Indonesia has long been regarded as a haven for money laundering.

Its banking laws prevent the freezing of accounts without evidence of wrongdoing and official notification from legal authorities.

Tuesday, Britain's financial regulator said the United States had widened its offensive further, issuing a new list of some 200 individuals that it suspects of having links to September'attacks and asking national regulators to supply their bank account details.