Swiss bankers charged in $1.2 billion tax fraud

Swiss bankers charged in $1.2 billion tax fraud!

money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Three Swiss bankers have been charged with helping American taxpayers hide more than $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan announced Tuesday.
Michael Berlinka, Urs Frei and Roger Keller face up to five years in prison for their roles in the scheme, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. They are accused of helping more than 100 clients hide assets between 2005 and 2010.

(visit the link for the full news article)

If the men accused are going to be extradited is unclear at this point but if so then they have some time in the slammer waiting for them. You can only imagine the type of people who invested their money with these guys, my guess being kingpins, drug lords, or either of those turned legit businessmen but this is not the first case made public. The article goes on further to say and i quote from it
"In 2009, the U.S. government settled a tax fraud case involving American customers with Swiss banking giant UBS that proved diplomatically challenging due to Switzerland's strict bank secrecy laws. UBS ultimately paid $780 million in fines and restitution and agreed to hand over the identities of a number of its U.S. customers"

All in all, if you got tons of dirty money, the Swiss bank method is played out now, so find somewhere else to hide it

money.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Damn. And here I was getting ready to move my fortune to a swiss bank.

and the 100 "Clients" are going to jail too right?

If I gotta pay taxes, then these asshats need to pay up too.

Death and taxes.

reply to post by ZeroUnlmtd


Why are they charged with helping us?

100% that none of us knew this was happening , yet we are being blamed for this.

How f ing stupid. I mean seriously....

How about we make that Death To Taxes instead of Death And Taxes? Why did the colonists split from Mother England? Taxation without representation. Okay, yes, I know there was a lot more too but there is a lot more too now. Kill taxes and government will crumble.

Don't start with all the good things taxes pay for. Just don't. Government wastes vast sums on illegal and immoral crap more than they spend on anything that does the taxpayer the slightest bit of good. Take away their allowance and make them clean up their mess now. I guarantee there will be a lot more respect from them when they come knocking then.

These three bankers....well, I mean they only helped rich folks, right? They weren't helping poor shleps like us. That being the case, nothing bad will happen to them. But let's see if their clients come to their aid or whether they throw them to the dogs. Let's see what loyalty exists in their world.

reply to post by CosmicEgg


Actually the founders felt the order from the British crown preventing colonialists from printing their own money was the last straw. Freedom of religious practice and freedom from the central bank of England (with ability to print money with no interest attached to it; usury) were one of the main reasons they sought liberation, along with the school taught "no taxation without representation" (which was an insult added to injury).

The documentary Money Masters touches on this subject rather nicely and unfortunately it's something they aren't going to teach in school.

wpw isnt it amazing Switzerland has always been the place to put your money to protect it from greedy regimes
if they give in to us strong arm tactics they will be slitting there own throats. why because their client secrecy is the lynchpin to their banking industry . now people are instead going to hide assets in alternate institutions like ones in caiman islands.

reply to post by proteus33


Greedy regimes? How about you make money in a country that allows you the resources (both actual and infrastructally) and manpower and pay your fair share of it? That's not even getting into the externalization of costs. If a middle class family makes 100,000 a year (combined salaries) and pay 30,000 of that in taxes, why should the rich be allowed to hide monies?

reply to post by Chewingonmushrooms


Did you miss the part where I said "Okay, yes, I know there was a lot more too but there is a lot more too now" or did that fly right on past without a greeting?

i was just talking about us . people have been hiding assets in switzerland for years why? because for the most part they were sure if there goverment went tuts up the bulk they has in swiss banks would be there if they needed to leave country and yes i know that didn't work so well for jews.