Wealthy Americans Under Scrutiny in UBS Case (Phil Gramm, McCain advisor-check!)

Wealthy Americans Under Scrutiny in UBS Case


By LYNNLEY BROWNING
Published: June 6, 2008

snip//

But now, as the federal authorities intensify an investigation into offshore bank accounts, the secrets of this rarefied world are being dragged into the open — and UBS’s privileged clients are running scared.

Under pressure from the authorities, UBS is considering whether to divulge the names of up to 20,000 of its well-heeled American clients, according to people close to the inquiry, a step that would have once been unthinkable to Swiss bankers, whose traditions of secrecy date to the Middle Ages.

Federal investigators believe some of the clients may have used offshore accounts at UBS to hide as much as $20 billion in assets from the Internal Revenue Service. Doing so may have enabled these people to dodge at least $300 million in federal taxes on income from those assets, according to a government official connected with the investigation.

One prominent UBS client, a wealthy property developer in California named Igor Olenicoff, has already pleaded guilty to filing a false 2002 tax return. But as the investigation tears holes in the veil of secrecy surrounding tax havens like Switzerland and Liechtenstein, other names are surfacing, according to the authorities.

New revelations are likely to come Monday, when a former UBS banker is expected to testify in a court in Florida about how he helped Mr. Olenicoff and other clients evade taxes. The former banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, is set to plead guilty to helping Mr. Olenicoff conceal $200 million.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/business/worldbusiness/06tax.html?adxnnl=1&ref=business&adxnnlx=1212761060-j+EPhGm0X7v9DsVptZZI0g

I understand not wanting to pay for swollen congressional pay raises and funding idiotic research studies (like is hot water hot) and wars of agression, but, for the most part, taxes take care of so many things we use daily like schools, roads, courthouse functions, libraries, parks, etc.

I guess it's more brainwashing by rightwing radio. It just never occurred to me to skip paying taxes because I use many of the services (and so do these jokers).

everybody should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and everything should be privatized, since the markets will take care of everything.

Of course, as soon as something happens that could affect them, they run to their lawyer to sue, sue, sue.

If they pay $1 million in taxes, and some of that is used for a park used by people who are so poor they don't have to pay any taxes, why then they are SUBSIDIZING somebody else's park experience. The horror!





:sarcasm:

customer" rules as a requirement of doing business in the US.

in Operations (the non-banking side or banking support). They must have seen these charges coming, because every year our required compliance modules would become more and more complicated. They made a big show of having everyone in the firm learn about recognizing money laundering, bundling, "know your client" so you can recognize suspicious requests and the reporting protocols thereto. This didn't apply to our jobs at all, so it was obviously all for show.

You have to remember that UBS is the same firm (it's the renamed Swiss Bank after its merger with Union Bank of Switzerland) that engaged in psychopathic strategies in holocaust gold acquisition during WWII and in withholding payments to holocaust survivors. One firm replied "well, where's your father's death certificate?" -- this is as extreme a psychopathic-type get-over ruse as you will ever hear, as though Himmler provided death certificates.

Psychopathic or otherwise corrupt entities often make a big show of compliance for public consumption merely to hide their true actions.

n/t

It is illegal for them to tell anyone you have an account with them. That includes YOU.

which is how this mess got into the public eye.

And it is also how they have a chance of getting their hands on UBS's records.

They will put him jail.