Word: liechtensteiners
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...Moreno-Ocampo had diplomatic allies as well. Liechtenstein's ambassador to the U.N. gave the ICC a huge amount of public exposure by premiering the documentary Darfur Now at the U.N. headquarters the day before Kouchner's conference. The film tells six stories out of Darfur, and one of them is Moreno-Ocampo's. The presence of Angelina Jolie ensured a packed house and media attention...
...feds are squeezing UBS for the names of other clients. More Swiss and Liechtenstein banks might be next in line for a federal look-see, their vaunted secrecy laws notwithstanding. In light of Birkenfeld's arrest, private bankers from Zurich and Geneva to the Isle of Jersey off the coast of England are assuming a bunker mentality. One private banker in London, caught up on events at UBS, responded, "My God, we're doomed." Says Reuven Avi-Yonah, a professor and director of the international tax program at University of Michigan Law School: "The whole world of private banking...
...current wave of prosecutorial zeal kicked off in February when German authorities arrested Klaus Zumwinkel, the CEO of Deutsche Post and one of the country's most prominent businessmen, for allegedly evading some $1 million in taxes by funneling money through foundations in Liechtenstein. The German tax cops got the goods on Zumwinkel with their own bit of skulduggery: they bought records stolen by a former employee of the Liechtenstein bank LGT Group, owned by that Alpine nation's royal family. Other tax authorities piled on, including the IRS. In February, the IRS said it was investigating more than...
...Liechtenstein also figures in the UBS case. In addition to Birkenfeld, the Department of Justice has charged Mario Staggl, a banker in Liechtenstein, who remains in that country and at work. In his guilty plea, Birkenfeld said he, Staggl and others helped create sham entities in tax havens like Switzerland, Panama, the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong and Liechtenstein to conceal the fact that U.S. citizens owned accounts. According to an agreement UBS and other banks signed with the U.S. government in 2001, UBS should have insisted its clients file ownership forms with the IRS but in many cases...
...Liechtenstein, the enemy is clear. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined the debate recently, the local newspaper, Liechtensteiner Vaterland, said she was "using Liechtenstein like a whetstone to sharpen her claws." Günther Fritz, Vaterland's editor-in-chief, says, "We're not a very patriotic people, but under pressure from Germany, everyone is banding together." Bankgeheimnis - bank secrecy - may not stir the human soul the way liberté, egalité, fraternité does, but it seems to work in Liechtenstein...