Something interesting about SWISS BANKS …

Rudolf Elmer is a former employee of Swiss bank Julius Bär. He worked for the bank for close to two decades, the last position being overseeing the Caribbean operations of the bank for eight years until his dismissal in 2002.He came to prominence as whistleblower in 2008 when he gave secret documents to WikiLeaks detailing the activities of Julius Bär in the Cayman Islands and alleged tax. Before that, he was arrested in 2005 for 30 days. He was convicted in Switzerland in January 2011 and rearrested immediately after for having distributed illegally obtained data to WikiLeaks early in January 2011. Julius Bär alleges that Elmer has doctored evidence to suggest the tax evasion.

The question of black money after evading tax landed in Swiss bank is very old and has been discussed not only in India but also in US, UK and Germany. This money includes the money of politicians in India, Mafias, smuggling, even money of various Hollywood actor and actresses.

The actual number of Account holder and money dumped is only available with SWISS Banks (Which Elmer and WikiLeaks claim to have).

To provide such information to foreigner is offence in SWISS. Hence, Elmer might be arrested and trialed or even killed.

There is huge money coming from India and Pak to there. Indians have deposits of $1789 trillion in SWISS Banks as per report of Swiss Banking association (India Aboard magazine).

As per Global Financial Integrity (association), every year 51 Lacs Crores of Tax evasion takes place in India and Pak.

SWISS Banks have all the protection of SWISS Government. Banks provide 15% of GDP. Hence, Government doesn’t interfere into business of Banks. They are secured by the Swiss Bank Secrecy Laws which actually provides that Banks are under no obligation to any one even the government to disclose the information regarding bank Accounts or account holders.

However, if someone has any complaint, it can be made to Banks ombudsman. India however has not made any complaint (or not felt till!).

USA however has made some serious check on this uncontrolled system. US citizen requires clearance from US revenue department to open Account in SWISS BANK.(Indians don’t require it).US has even forced SWISS Banks to freeze the Accounts of Al-Quida and other extremist groups in Iraq.All such information was provided to US government.

Indian Government however, did not feel necessary to have such check on Banks even though there is such a huge amount of Black money involved. Infact, SWISS Banks to don’t give any value to India even though India is their biggest customer.

Interesting facts of SWISS Bank Account · Swiss Banks don’t look at credibility of the person to open account. With 5000-25000 Swiss francs any one can open the account, even an insolvent. Some Banks however don’t allow normal person to open account. Only person with good reputed name can open an account. · There are three types of Bank Accounts: 1. Classic 2. Premium 3. Corporate and 4. Numbered Of course forth account is used for dumping Black money. For forth account, the account holder is known by that number (code) only. No one even Banks don’t know the name of that person. Even that number is known to very few of the Bank officers. All the transactions take place by the account number only. · Once open an account, you can do transactions through net banking. You can withdraw money through international Debit and Credit card anywhere in the world. · In some banks however, opening of Account is not easy. Some banks enquire huge minimum Balance. These banks provide portfolio Management services as well. · UBS and Credit Suisse are two biggest Swiss banks having almost 50% of total deposits in SWISS BANKS.

- Harshad Mane