NOTE: April 12, 2011– I was looking through my analytics, and noticed that one of my postings was being monitored by the Swiss Government. I was, of course, curious as to what they might be interested in. I followed the link they followed, and discovered a posting I had completely forgotten I had written. Here it is: …
One of the things you learn in History class when you're growing up, is how Switzerland remained at peace through two world wars because they remained neutral through those conflicts, and rarely does anyone bother to ask: if that strategy could have worked, why didn't anyone else think of that strategy? That view is absolute nonsense, and if anyone bothers to question this, they are given an equally nebulous answer about how noone wants to take on the Swiss army– like they are some crack Moussad-type outfit– and there's absolutely no way of telling what kind of army they have because they haven't fought a single war in at least a century! There's usually some vague, muttered reference to Swiss Army Knives, like an army of lederhosen-clad über-warriors brandishing corkscrews are going to drive off a German blitzkrieg!
As any literate individual with even a tenuous grasp on reality can tell you (granted, such individuals constitute a distinct minority), Switzerland can remain neutral because they hold everyone else's money! Gold bullion which was pilfered from Jews you gassed, burned and sold their skin for lamp-shades– Hey! We aren't in the judgement business! Come on down!
Which brings us to the eternal question: Where's the MONEY?$?
We know the loot that Haliburton extorted via no-bid contracts, billions vanishing in clerical errors (mistakes were made!), and non-delivery of services contracted & paid for– has been safely tucked away in non-taxable bank accounts in Dubai. And hundreds of billions of dollars more are vacationing (for an indeterminate duration) on the sunny beaches of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. So what about all those hundreds of billions that were siphoned of to the venerable great granddaddy of secret tax havens, namely Switzerland?
IRS claims Swiss bank UBS kept US account secret
Swiss bank UBS AG used coded language in internal e-mails and memos, created hundreds of sham offshore entities and lied to U.S. officials in an elaborate scheme to conceal the overseas accounts of wealthy Americans, the Internal Revenue Service claimed in federal court documents.
The IRS filed the documents this week seeking to force the bank to turn over records for an estimated 52,000 U.S customers who allegedly violated American tax laws by concealing Swiss accounts worth at least $14.8 billion.
"UBS systematically violated and circumvented its obligations …. all in order to help its U.S. clients conceal from the IRS their Swiss accounts at UBS," IRS agent Daniel Reeves said in the affidavit, which charges that the scheme ran from 2000 to 2007.
2000 to 2007? Hmmm… Do those years ring any bells? The article goes on:
A UBS spokesman declined comment Friday, noting only that UBS has previously said it will fight the IRS effort — known as a "John Doe summons" — to learn the identities of these thousands of American clients. Earlier this week, UBS agreed to pay $780 million and disclose up to 300 UBS account holders to avoid criminal prosecution for those transactions.
According to the IRS, UBS allegedly staged training sessions so that "client advisers" could travel frequently to consult with secret U.S. customers without attracting the attention of tax agents or law enforcement officials. They were told to keep "an irregular hotel rotation" and falsely claim on customs forms that they were in the U.S. on pleasure, not business.
UBS also maintained a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week "hot line" for advisers to call if they ran into trouble with authorities, according one UBS document filed with the court.
"Travel laptops were to have a generic UBS PowerPoint presentation to show U.S. authorities in the event of a border search," the IRS affidavit said.
The documents show UBS was worried that U.S. officials might tap their advisers' telephones or eavesdrop on cell phone conversations. No one was allowed to bring a printer to the U.S. out of fear that creation of a document might trigger criminal liability, according to one document.
At least one UBS adviser used code language in e-mails to describe his business dealings, adding that "orange" meant euros; "green" was U.S. dollars; and "blue" signified British pounds. The e-mail from this adviser, "Dieter," that a "C" was $100,000, a "nut" was $250,000 and a "swan" $1 million.
The e-mail goes on to describe a transaction involving "2.5 orange nuts" and "2.05 green nuts," ending with "all clear?"
Another method to hide dealings with U.S. account holders was to create fake entities and corporations in other countries, according to the IRS affidavit. In 2004, the IRS filing said, UBS planned to create about 900 of these "dummy" entities to conceal Americans' Swiss accounts.
"In truth, the accounts were owned and controlled by U.S. taxpayers," the IRS affidavit said.
UBS was apparently upfront at first with its rich American customers about the illegal nature of the secret accounts, according to one internal e-mail.
The IRS said a declaration that clients were asked to sign flatly stated: "I would like to avoid disclosure of my identity to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service." But that did not go over well with the Americans, according to a 2000 UBS e-mail included in the IRS filing.
"This sentence was refused by many clients, provoked angry outcries and we were being told, which if signed, fully incriminates a U.S. person of criminal wrongdoing should this document fall into the wrong hands," according to the e-mail. It said the offending language was replaced with this: "I consent to the new tax regulations."
But that does not mean the bank is about to fork over information on thousands of accounts.
…UBS said that except for the 250 to 300 U.S. customers, it will fight to keep all others names private, arguing Swiss secrecy laws shield them.
Hours before the new suit, Switzerland's president, Hans-Rudolf Merz, said his country will not relent in defending its treasured tradition of confidential bank accounts.
"Banking secrecy, ladies and gentlemen, remains intact," Merz told reporters.
…commentators in Switzerland voiced their anger at the bank's business practices and what they saw as heavy-handed treatment by U.S. authorities.
Thursday's news that UBS and Swiss authorities agreed to give Washington the names of 250 to 300 suspected tax cheats raised fears that the country could lose the prosperity born of lucrative banking secrecy.
"Yes we can — finish you off!" was the headline in mass circulation daily Blick beneath a cartoon showing U.S. President Barack Obama preparing to blow open a Swiss bank safe.
"If you give the U.S. authorities a little finger, they'll take your whole hand," said economic editor Marco Metzler of the daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
UBS shares temporarily plummeted 17.7 percent in morning trading, and later closed down 14.1 percent at 11 Swiss francs ($9.36) on the Zurich exchange.
Oskar Freysinger, a lawmaker with the nationalist Swiss People's Party, said recent events had left him shocked and upset.
"This is now about the financial survival of our country," he told The Associated Press. "UBS not only damaged itself, but the whole country is suffering from it now."
"Without banking secrecy, we would have a million people unemployed over the next years," Freysinger said. "People cannot imagine how much depends on the banking secrecy and what it means for Switzerland's welfare."
Hard to feel sorry for this…
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