SWISS MUST BE OFFSHORE NO MORE!
Monday, July 13th, 2009Legal justification for bank secrecy does not make it right”
The headline from the lead editorial of the Financial Times of Friday July 10, 2009 is a strong argument for Switzerland to drop the major blocking point for joining the European Union: Sovereignty. That’s right, the Financial Times is advocating that the Swiss drop the prime aspect of the country’s right to self determination, that is, the right to create and administer laws within its own sovereign jurisdiction.
The Swiss have been drawn into a legal war with the United States by the actions of one of its largest banks, UBS. The Swiss banking giant has admitted and paid nearly one billion dollars to the US government for its actions in aiding and abetting US citizens from evading taxes. Now the Americans want to close down and change the laws on Swiss banking secrecy…that is, the fundamental human right to privacy is being attacked by the Americans and backed by the lackeys in the financial press of major countries.
However, the fact that UBS violated US laws is meaningless in the context of the banks’ adherence to Swiss banking laws in Switzerland. The bank violated laws in the US and should pay, but does that mean that Swiss banking laws are somehow the cause of American problems and should be dismantled?
It is far fetched that the current financial crisis was caused by Swiss bank secrecy laws, but the American (and OECD ) attack on Switzerland has at the center of the controversy the question over the Sovereignty of the Swiss nation. The fact that the US courts want to extend their laws to Switzerland is another sign of US overreach and the imposition of the American way upon other nations and peoples. The question is, are the Swiss willing to fight back against this American aggression or have they already given up?
There is no dispute that UBS violated US laws by illegally soliciting funds of US citizens in the US without registering with the US government authorities. The American citizens violated US laws by not declaring their income held in Switzerland to US authorities.
(Indeed, their Swiss bankers aided and abetted them while earning millions of dollars in fees, and this is why UBS paid such a hefty, and unprecedented fine to the USA.) Yet, these same American citizens and the bank did not violate Swiss laws in any way, shape or form. If the Swiss law calls for complete bank secrecy within the territory of Switzerland this is something for the Swiss to decide, not the American courts.
The Financial Times, and the justice department of the United States are dead wrong when they say in the final sentence of the editorial … “This landlocked country cannot remain offshore forever.” No, the Swiss people and nation have withstood centuries of big countries attempts to diminish their independence. The Nazi boots did not trample the country during the second world war and Yankee and other OECD attempts to bully this small country into giving up its sovereignty should think twice before trying to impose their laws on this country. The question is: will the Swiss stand up this time or not?
Perhaps, bank secrecy is not so important to Switzerland any longer, however, sovereignty should be. In case the people in the small cantons have forgotten and maybe it is time for the Swiss to take a page from the slogan of one of the American states: “Live free or die”. Swiss laws by are for the Swiss nation, and should be decided upon in the democratic fashion of one of the most democratic places on earth.