August 3rd, 2009
The New York Times is carrying an article by a Swiss ideologue, Pierre Bessard, entitled
Leave Swiss Banks Alone. Anyone reading it might be forgiven for thinking that Swiss bank secrecy somehow is a benefit to the world. We would like to correct a few points of fact, and of interpretation.
First, he trots out the hoary old canard that bank secrecy started out, at least in part, as a way to protect money from the Nazis. We recently published the correction of this myth in the Financial Times, in our March 26 letter entitled
Swiss secrecy laws...August 3rd, 2009
ZURICH (Reuters) - Shares in UBS soared on Monday after reports said the Swiss bank would not pay a fine and would pass on fewer client names than expected in a settlement of U.S. tax litigation to be finalized later this week.
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August 1st, 2009
The U.S. and Swiss governments have tentatively settled a legal dispute in which the U.S. government was demanding the names of thousands of Americans suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to hide money from the Internal Revenue Service.
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July 31st, 2009
Task Force member Global Financial Integrity made a couple of press appearances today. GFI Director Raymond Baker appeared in an Associated Press (AP)
article discussing the UBS case, and GFI Mananging Director Tom Cardamone
discussed the case on Canada's Business News Network (BNN).
From the AP
article:
Raymond Baker, director of the Global Financial Integrity, an organization that works to end illegal international money transfers, said it's critical that U.S. officials push for greater information sharing so tax evasion and other financial crimes can be investigated.
"What happens with the...
