U.S., Swiss Agree to Share Data on Tax Evaders
Posted on 21. Jun, 2009 by Shera Crossan in Business & Finance, Economy, Foreign and Domestic Intelligence, Politics, Shera Crossan
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the deal, which the governments began negotiating in April, “will help bring an end to an era of offshore accounts and investments being used for tax evasion.” The U.S. declined to release details until the deal, which could face a referendum in Switzerland, has been completed and signed.
Switzerland and other tax havens in Europe and the Caribbean came under intense international pressure to agree to share tax information with other governments ahead of a summit meeting of the Group of 20 governments in London in April. Switzerland has said it won’t undermine the confidentiality of Swiss financial institutions.
The U.S. Treasury made it clear, however, that the new accord won’t affect a civil suit filed by U.S. authorities aimed at forcing Swiss bank UBS AG to provide information about 52,000 clients. Swiss officials have said that at an April meeting, Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz asked Mr. Geithner to kill the case against UBS in exchange for the new treaty terms.
In February, UBS agreed to pay $780 million to avoid prosecution in a U.S. criminal case after admitting to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government of billions of dollars in tax revenueWSJ SOURCE
One may see that the private ownership of gold makes it much more difficult for them.
Once Germany establishes vending-machine gold everybody prudent in Europe will take a trip to Germany.
hooray!! the US finally bulleyed the Swiss into obedience of US laws. Now lets get on to Iran and North Korea.
Or do we only bully countries that can’t fight back?