The Union Bank of Switzerland has been feeling the heat from the United States Government Department of Justice regarding people in the United States that have been stashing their excess cash into numbered/unnamed Swiss Bank Accounts.
The first 250 Tax evaders and Tax avoiders named by the Department of Justice were finally outed in February of 2009. It has taken a couple of years of serious peeking into…..to finally reach into the deep UBS deep pockets. Over the week-end things have gotten a little more interesting , in that UBS has now suggested that it will be willing to give up between 5000 and 10,000 other accounts in the coming year. The exact total of wrong doers is unknown but certainly could include up to 52,000 US Citizens that the Department of Justice has identified “as possibles”.
This week a guy named John McCarthy from Malibu, California agreed to plead guilty to one count of failing to file an annual report to the Treasury Department. Documents filed with the plea shows a tax scheme that channneled funds from a Hong Kong Bank to the UBS account in Zurich. This brings in the “Asian Connection”. The IRS and the Treasury Department are starting to get the message that this is going to be a deep investigation that will have global and far reaching effects. Details on the release of the 10,000 names is expected by the end of this week; reports Carrick Mollenkamp of the Wall Street Journal today.
The mechanics of the UBS consulting were interesting in that they suggested McCarthy move his cash into a Hong Kong Bank where funds were then shifted to Zurich under an account designated as: COGS Enterprises Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong Bank, then creating a Liechtenstein Foundation which would then oversee funds placed in either Panamanian or Hong Kong Corporations. The million bucks he put into this entity is included in the plea agreement which can net McCarthy, five years in the Federal Pen and a $250,000 fine. In the words of Mel Gibson in the Patriot film: “Aim small hit big!”
The crack in secrecy of the Swiss Banks is starting to become a fissure that will undoubtedly yield many “pillars of society” by the time it is the end of the day! There is little doubt that all 52,000 numbered Swiss accounts should be outed and reviewed. The Hong Kong Banks, so far, have been acting more as “the middlemen” who claim no global regulatory secrecy for their accounts. Banks in the Caymans were also mentioned in the plea agreement but with few extemporaneous details.
The Secret Banking issue is deep and deserves strong oversight. Citizens of many countries will eventually be identified and prosecuted. This process is becoming a case of Banking Musical Chairs and UBS may be the first one that is left without a place to sit after the music stops! The success or failure of the DOJ and their prosecution numbers will be telling.
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