UBS Is Closing Down Accounts

[DogPoundPup]

Source: WaPO

Swiss banking giant UBS, under investigation by the U.S. government for allegedly helping Americans hide money from the Internal Revenue Service, is closing thousands of accounts, putting clients at greater risk of being exposed, tax lawyers say.

UBS clients have been receiving calls and letters telling them that their Swiss accounts will soon be liquidated. Those who have concealed funds from the IRS have two basic choices: They can take new and potentially difficult steps to hide the money, heightening their risk of being caught and punished severely, or they can come clean, lawyers say.

The backdrop for UBS's action is that the U.S. government has been pressing UBS and the Swiss government to disclose the names of thousands of Americans with undeclared accounts, while the Swiss have vowed to uphold Swiss legal protections for bank clients.

However, as a practical matter, whether or not the Swiss formally give up the names, UBS's decision to close the accounts undermines Switzerland's legendary code of bank secrecy, lawyers said.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111403559.html?hpid=topnews%3Cbr%3E

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From page two of article;

UBS announced in July that it was getting out of the business of offering Swiss accounts to American clients.

Some clients feel hung out to dry. "They're not happy," said lawyer Bryan C. Skarlatos of the firm Kostelanetz & Fink. "They feel like UBS is taking steps to protect itself."


Oh my, the irony eh? Who exactly is cheating who? :)

[napi21]

1. THANK YOU UBS! It's about time the cheaters get caught! n/t

[Raschel]

8. I don't think UBS is doing anyone any favors. It's tied in with our government,

and it looks to me like things are so bad that we're shaking down the big boys for some money.
This bailout has long arms.

I'm sure crooks like Gramm will not be examined.

[napi21]

14. I don't care who they're tied with, I just want the cheaters caught &

I want their penalty money!

[Dover]

19. If we collected all these outstanding taxes, what would our budget look like?

Seems like we could get a lot done with that money. First on the list is to build
prisons for white collar criminals. Usually their only punishment (if any) is to
lose their job or pay a fine rather than pay with time.

[hobbit709]

2. AAWW!! Ain't that just too bad.

To those fuckers trying to cheat on their taxes. I wonder if Phil and Wendy Gramm had accounts.
:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[99th_Monkey]

3. From what I hear, the IRS doesn't have the where-with-all to seize Have-more's assets

... since all their investigators are working 24/7 to bust penny-anti tax-cheats
by the Have-nots.

[Lasher]

6. The IRS once had investigators for rich folks.

They got rid of them, saying it just didn't pay off.

[99th_Monkey]

7. Didn't "pay off" for whom? ... nevermind. we both know the answer. ~nt~

[David Zephyr]

4. Phil Gramm. Always think of Phil Gram when you think of UBS and Enron.

Wendy and Phil Gramm.

Why they are not in the bowels of a prison for the rest of their lives for their great crimes is an indictment on the entire judicial system.

[Bluenorthwest]

15. They can not go to prison!

Phil has a private meeting with Obama and McCain on Monday. How could he do that from prison?

[OregonBlue]

21. It is Senator Lindsey Graham who is meeting with Obama, not Phil Gramm.

[annabanana]

16. I always do. . .UBS = Gramm; Gramm = UBS

criminals

[aquart]

5. LOL!

Tell them to check Pictet et Cie., as well.

[Eurobabe]

9. What's that song I hear?

:nopity: :nopity:

[Mari333]

10. UBS boss charged over tax evasion

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7727796.stm

[City Lights]

11. Isn't that just too bad!

:rofl:

:nopity:

:applause:

Recommended.

[jimshoes]

12. Wonder which rotten apples will fall

off this tree?

[UpInArms]

13. kick'n r!

:kick:

[Dover]

17. About time! But what is Bushco's motivation? And what about the Caymans and Bahamas?

Not sure who is the brute force behind this investigation, but surely it isn't Bushco.
I hope they don't stop with Swiss banks and go where the largest tax dodgers are...the Caymans
and Bahamas. And they need to close the loophole that allows the big banks to set these
offshore accounts up for their wealthy clients. It's 100% criminal, and places the largest
tax burden on the ones who can least afford it, the lower income folks. If we collected all the
outstanding taxes from these accounts we could make great strides toward rebuilding this country
and paying for so many things that our taxes are supposed to pay for.

This is a fascinating article:


Trillion Dollar Hideaway:

Secret accounts have traditionally been the province of private banks in Switzerland, Austria, and Luxembourg. But those nations have lost favor among depositors in recent years as they have eased bank secrecy laws in response to international pressure. Small states in the Caribbean and the South Pacific, eager to offset declining tourism and lower prices for farm exports, have rushed to fill the void, turning to offshore banking as an easy and effective means of attracting big money from abroad (see "Tropic of Tax Cheats," this page).

But it's not just microstates that are profiting from the offshore boom. The world's largest financial institutions are also growing richer by offering private banking services to their top clients. Big-time American players include Merrill Lynch, Chase Manhattan, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. The leading U.S. private banker is Citibank, which administers trusts and shell corporations for some 40,000 clients through its operations in New York, London, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Jersey, and Switzerland.

To open an account, private banking clients must generally deposit at least $1 million. According to a report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, private bankers then assign the client a "relationship manager" who creates offshore trusts, handles all financial transactions -- and helps ensure secrecy. "Private banks routinely create shell companies and trusts to shield the identity of the beneficial owner of a bank account," the report states. "Private banks also open accounts under code names and will, when asked, refer to clients by code names or encode account transactions."

One former private banker who had more than 30 clients, each with as many as 15 shell companies, told the subcommittee that his own bank prohibited him from keeping any records linking front operations to their owners. In another case, Federal Reserve examiners asked Bankers Trust to create a database identifying the owners of shell companies. The bank complied -- by setting up the database on the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel, which requires U.S. investigators to request names on a case-by-case basis from Jersey courts. The effort to create and shelter multiple accounts "complicates regulatory oversight and law enforcement," the Senate subcommittee concluded, "making it nearly impossible for an outside reviewer to be sure that all private bank accounts belonging to an individual have been identified." ..cont'd

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=114&topic_id=46457

[Dover]

18. ...self delete.

[MattSh]

20. Man, just how stupid are these people?

Even I know that if you want to keep your Swiss account free of IRS interference that you open it in a Swiss bank that DOES NOT have branches or any presence in the USA. Simple as that. If your Swiss bank has ANY presence in the USA, it's accounts worldwide are subject to IRS snooping. It's part of the agreement that UBS signed when they merged with Paine Webber.

[defendandprotect]

22. Wonderful... secret bank accounts are a threat to democracy,--!!!

[hatrack]

23. Sounds like a Bank of Whiners, if you ask me . . .

Don't they know that it's just a mental loss of illegal tax haven status?