Word: liechtensteiner
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When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight," quipped essayist Samuel Johnson, "it concentrates his mind wonderfully." For Liechtenstein, the tiny banking haven snuggled on Switzerland's eastern border, concentration seemed in order last June. After years of cajoling, the world's richest nations had placed the principality on a blacklist of countries that failed to adopt sufficiently tight rules to deter money laundering. Although no specific misdeeds were mentioned, the designation by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering would have made dealings with those countries difficult for major foreign banks. Banking and related...
Suddenly, Liechtenstein scrambled to set matters right. Within two working days, the parliament hurried through a bundle of new laws making it a crime for bankers or financial intermediaries to fail to report suspicious activity, and allowing Liechtenstein authorities to cooperate with foreign authorities to fight money laundering. The legislature also approved plans to hire new judges, prosecutors and police officers with special knowledge of economic crimes. "We see there is more criminality in the financial sector than we thought," admits Prime Minister Mario Frick. He added that the newly adopted legislation will lift the veil of banking secrecy...
...appear to come from legitimate business. Pressure has focused on tax havens because they attract money fleeing tax collectors and often employ bank-secrecy rules that make it hard to identify illegal cash. Money hidden from tax collectors is considered illegal in many countries, but not in places like Liechtenstein...
Europe's tax havens have historically been prone to abuse. The FATF report said that Liechtenstein's system for reporting suspicious transactions had long been inadequate, that there were no laws for exchanging information with international authorities about money laundering and that the resources devoted to tackling the problem were paltry. The country's laxity was underscored earlier this year during major political scandals in Germany. Investigators found that German politicians used Liechtenstein bank accounts to receive bribe money paid by the French oil giant Elf Aquitaine...
...tourists. Several of them are hospitalized for le choque (shock) and, represented by American attorney William Ginsburg, file suit against Monica for le steering lunatique. Their case is eventually dismissed by a French magistrate after Ginsburg misses an important court appearance because he was giving an interview to Radio Liechtenstein...