How Swiss banks took money from Nazi’s and kept it from Holocaust survivors
Swiss banks are notorious for their strong banking laws that make it possible for banks to refuse to hand over their customers’ data to authorities. Some Swiss bank accounts don’t even have names attached to them, using number identification instead.
In 1996, the World Jewish Congress uncovered a CIA report from 1944 that one of Hitler’s closest confidantes opened bank accounts at the Union Bank of Switzerland. It led to a widespread investigation and subsequent lawsuits that found Swiss financial institutions collaborated with and aided the Nazi Regime by knowingly retaining and concealing assets of Holocaust victims, and by accepting and laundering illegally obtained Nazi loot and profits of slave labor.
In the years leading up to WWII many Jews moved their assets to Swiss bank accounts. Those who couldn’t flee the Nazi regime were captured and sent to the death camps. Of course, they lost everything. After the war the individuals or families of those who had deposited assets in the same Swiss banks returned only to be told that without their identification numbers they couldn’t retrieve their money.
Luckily, the lawsuits started in 1996 led to an enormous settlement that is still being paid out to this day. But the small Alpine nation continues to be one of the world’s most preferred tax havens for the super-rich. In fact, just earlier this year The Wall Street Journal reported on how dozens of Swiss banks encouraged U.S. clients to hide money abroad. It was part of a broader U.S. crackdown on undeclared offshore accounts that led to a $360 million dollar settlement by firms that admitted misconduct.
Global banking giant HSBC helped its clients, including weapons dealers, tax evaders, tin-pot dictators and celebrities, conceal $100 billion in secret Swiss accounts. According to data compiled by the consulting firm Deloitte, Swiss banks hold $2 trillion of foreigners’ money, more than any other country.
Read the full Wall Street Journal report on exactly how Swiss banks helped people avoid taxes.
Article by: Nicholas Graham Platt for Cultural Facts of the Day
