Switzerland asks U.S. court to halt UBS tax case

Reuters ^ | 05/01/09 | Tom Brown

[TigerLikesRooster]

Switzerland asks U.S. court to halt UBS tax case

By Tom Brown Thu Apr 30, 9:50 pm ET

MIAMI (Reuters) – Switzerland urged a U.S. court on Thursday to reject demands by U.S. tax authorities for information about U.S. clients of UBS AG, saying disclosure would violate its sovereignty and international law.

The Swiss government's petition came in a federal court filing in Miami, where the U.S. Internal Revenue Service is seeking to force UBS (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N) to reveal the identities of 52,000 Americans suspected of using accounts at the bank to hide about $14.8 billion of assets and evade U.S. taxes.

"Switzerland's laws prohibit the release of confidential information to foreign governments when the request has not been made through authorized intergovernmental channels," the government said in its filing.

"If the court were to order UBS to produce evidence from Switzerland, and backed that order with coercive powers, the court would be substituting its own authority for that of the competent Swiss authorities, and therefore would violate Swiss sovereignty and international law," it said.

[TigerLikesRooster]

It's time for ACORN to wage Jihad against Switzerland.:-)

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[DTogo]

Obama doesn’t listen to “typical white countries” like Switzerland.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Hence, ‘devout’ ACORN members will fly 747 into Mont Blanc.:-)

[boycott]

The US government sure is behaving in a thug-like manner. Our government has not authority over Switzerland.

If Switzerland had made such a demand on the our government, the US government would have laughed at them. Our government is run by a bunch of bullying idiotic corrupt fools.

[NonValueAdded]

Looks like the administration has finally found out how to protect their own friends caught up in this deal. Watch Hillary! “regretfully” push for honoring this request and for the coffers of the lie-brary and cat house to swell just a little bit more.

[April Lexington]

ping

[M. Espinola]

Halt the case since somebody is getting a little bit too close to banker bailout theft of tax payer-millions & billions

[CodeToad]

I assume UBS is practicing banking in the US on US soil under US banking laws and would be required to follow US law and not the laws of Switzerland.

[John123]

identities of 52,000 Americans

Is Charlie Rangel on the list?

[givemELL]

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1917829,00.html divorce clients on the trail with UBS, AND

As an aside, of relevance, there are 52,000 accounts at UBS, all the rest should come out too....one can guess why the main body is shielded ...thousands of politicians, etc. as well as the internationally legitimized Swiss tradition of secrecy, unchallenged to date. Note, historically, since WWII, that there are reported now about 280,000 ‘private banks’ in the Carribean, 8-11 members and officers required in each bank varying on the island govt. with jurisdiction, which are ‘neutral banking jurisdictions’, meaning they do not communicate with the Fed Res System and are not in reach of the IRS. None of these ‘banks’ do any public business. They are merely repositories of unreachable funds for private international use. There are more banking charters than maritime ship registrations/flags of convenience!!..tax havens supreme. The US Navy probably exists more to protect these banks than it does our own banks. We should use our Navy to reclaim the assets in these banks, and thereby reclaim the stolen wealth from our country, now that the middle class, in the process of being enslaved, has rapidly diminishing assets to be taxed. Fully 2/3rds of the 280,000 ‘banks’ are owned by Americans?! The so called Obama initiative of ‘tax the rich’, avoids their biggest asset repository, Caribbean private banks, chartered there. The focus on Switzerland, and one bank, with a minimal sampling of tax evaders is only a diversion from the vastly larger international picture of tax evasion. The selection criteria of the 4-5000 being exposed at UBS must be suspect of being diversionary in its’ isolation...and, perhaps Republicans and independants are being focussed on at a lower level? (recall Chrysler dealership rejections) at a lower level? Just kidding, the ‘fairness’ must be ‘beyond compare’. The selection criteria are secret, of course.

Note the software available for running a private bank:

Panama City, Panama (PRWEB) May 28, 2008 — NexorOne (www.nexorone.com) announced Friday that its banking platform will integrate with Eurowire (www.eurowire.cc), allowing customers to pass on international wire instructions and other customer orders directly from the software. Both NexorOne and Eurowire believe the refined system will help ease the process for private and offshore banks, as well as eliminate many instances of delays and human error....http://www.prweb.com/releases/eurowire/nexorone/prweb974654.htm

Offshore banking: http://www.escapeartist.com/Offshore_Banking/

http://www.offshore-protection.com/

There is heavier competition from offshore banks for illicit US money as has ever existed in spite of the UBS ‘threat’.