UBS is being accused and under investigation for encouraging US customers to evade taxes...of course by stashing money in secret swiss bank accounts.
Reportedly the US loses about $100 billion tax dollars a year to money hidden away in foreign banks - mostly swiss banks.
business week wrote:
banking secrecy is no longer a non-negotiable issue for the Swiss government. Over the weekend, Merz acknowledged that Switzerland would have to "compromise". And both Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, hinted that Switzerland might have to give up its protection of foreign tax evaders. Banks too are rethinking their position. Oswald Grübel, the new head of UBS, said in an interview: "It's questionable whether we can continue to hide tax evaders behind banking secrecy." And even Geneva private banker Pierre Mirabaud, president of the powerful Swiss Bankers Association, said the country might "not necessarily" need to continue the practice.
