[Assam] Black Money Acct Holder Names Cannot be Made Public

[Ram Sarangapani]

This article from Bloomberg might help.

There is a slight problem for MM Singh. While most foreign governments (like
the US, Germany etc) are fighting the Swiss banks to release bank/account
data, MM Singh is fighting India and cooperating with the Swiss.

--Ram

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=akmcfUr7TqHs

Swiss Banks Achilles Heel Is Workers Selling Data (Update1)
 By Warren Giles - Feb 02, 2010

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Swiss banks are discovering that the biggest threat to
client privacy is their own workers.

German Chancellor Angela
Merkel<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Angela+Merkel&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=en10_wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>said
yesterday her government may buy stolen data on Swiss bank accounts as
French authorities comb information acquired from an employee of HSBC
Holdings Plc’s<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?T=en10/quote.wm&ticker=HSBN%3ALN>private
bank in Geneva. The cases come two years after Germany paid 5
million euros ($7 million) for details filched from LGT Group in neighboring
Liechtenstein.

“This is a kind of business war against Switzerland in which practices which
were completely illegal have become acceptable,” says Daniel Fischer,
founder of Zurich-based Fischer & Partner law firm who specializes in
banking law and fraud. “It’s a huge danger for Swiss banks.”

The willingness of governments to pay for stolen data is fanning tensions
with France and Germany as Switzerland seeks to negotiate treaties
implementing its commitment to cooperate with international tax probes. The
Swiss government said last month it will draft a law barring officials from
assisting foreign countries in cases involving theft of client details.

Germany’s use of such data would be “counterproductive” in future
negotiations, and the German government shouldn’t be handling stolen goods,
the Swiss Bankers Association said in a Jan. 30 statement. The association
represents more than 300 banks, including UBS
AG<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?T=en10/quote.wm&ticker=UBSN%3AVX>and
Credit
Suisse Group AG<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?T=en10/quote.wm&ticker=CSGN%3AVX>.


Incentive to Steal

“What’s new recently is the price paid by states for lists, which makes it
more attractive” for employees to steal, Anne-Marie de
Weck<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Anne-Marie+de+Weck&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=en10_wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>,
managing partner at Geneva-based private bank Lombard Odier, told reporters
last month in Bern. In bank security, “the most important factor is human,”
she said.

An unidentified individual has offered to sell Germany information on about
1,300 holders of Swiss bank accounts for 2.5 million euros, the Financial
Times Deutschland reported yesterday, without saying where it got the
information.

FTD said the data came from HSBC’s private bank in Geneva, while the German
newspaper Handelsblatt reported it was drawn primarily from accounts at UBS
and may yield 200 million euros in lost taxes. Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung today said the information came from Credit Suisse, without
providing the source of the report.

UBS isn’t aware of such information, spokesman Christoph
Meier<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Christoph%0AMeier&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=en10_wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>said
when asked about the Handlesblatt report. A spokesman for HSBC in
Geneva declined to comment, and Credit Suisse issued a statement saying it
had “no information” that the bank was affected.

“We should aim to get hold of this data if it’s relevant,” because Germany
needs to crack down on tax violators, Merkel told reporters yesterday in
Berlin.

Liechtenstein Precedent

Germany last year prosecuted tax evaders, including former Deutsche Post AG
Chief Executive Officer Klaus
Zumwinkel<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Klaus+Zumwinkel&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=en10_wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>,
using the information bought from a former computer consultant at LGT, owned
by Liechtenstein’s princely family. Zumwinkel received a two-year suspended
sentence and was ordered to pay a 1 million- euro penalty after a Germany
court ruled that he had “knowingly” evaded taxes.

Tax authorities have increasingly been offered secret bank information since
the Liechtenstein case, German Finance Ministry spokesman Michael
Offer<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Michael+Offer&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=en10_wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>said
yesterday.

“I have a hard time imagining that we are living in a world where a
government, which is supposed to set an example, can take for granted that
stolen data will be the basis for action,” Patrick
Odier<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Patrick+Odier&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=en10_wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>,
chairman of the Swiss Bankers Association, said in a Jan. 29 interview at
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “It is a real issue and we
have to make sure it doesn’t develop into more cases.”

HSBC Agreement

The French Finance Ministry said in December that it had data on Swiss bank
accounts held by French taxpayers, including names provided by a
former HSBC<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?T=en10/quote.wm&ticker=HSBA%3ALN>employee.

Switzerland suspended treaty negotiations with France in December because of
the HSBC case. After talks last week, France agreed to return the original
data to Switzerland and not ask for assistance from Swiss authorities based
on the stolen information. France will continue to use the data to pursue
tax evaders at home.

“The agreement won’t change anything for a client of HSBC whose data was
stolen,” said Fischer, the Zurich lawyer, who added that details of the
accord aren’t clear. “An agreement may, on the face of it, be good for
Switzerland but not for Swiss banking clients.”

Swiss secrecy laws, which threaten bank employees with as much as five years
in jail if they divulge client information, have failed to stop staff from
stealing data.

‘Gray Zone’

Switzerland’s argument that foreign governments should abide by established
codes of conduct that bar the use of stolen information may also fall short,
said Thomas Cottier, a professor of European and international economic law
at the University of Bern.

“We are entering a gray zone of intelligence and the principles are not as
strict as in penal law, where information unlawfully obtained is not
admissible,” said Cottier. “The risk is that foreign governments won’t say
where they got the information from, leading to less rather than more
transparency.”

Banking secrecy has been the focus of international attention for the past
two years as the U.S., France and Germany target tax evaders to help close
widening budget
deficits<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?T=en10/quote.wm&ticker=FDEBTY%3AIND>after
the worst economic crisis since World War II.

Switzerland agreed in March to cooperate with countries investigating tax
evasion in order to avoid being placed on a list of uncooperative tax
havens. The Swiss government in August said it would give data on as many as
4,450 UBS accounts to the Internal Revenue Service after the country’s
biggest bank admitted that it helped clients avoid U.S. taxes.

UBS Whistleblower

The case hinged on information provided by Bradley
Birkenfeld<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Bradley%0ABirkenfeld&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=en10_wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>,
a former UBS banker who told U.S. authorities how the bank courted wealthy
Americans without a license from U.S. regulators and helped them set up
accounts to evade taxes.

Mirabaud & Cie., one of Geneva’s oldest private banks, says the risk from
employees isn’t new.

“The human factor is obviously a risk, and we’re always evolving as it’s a
continuing concern,” Yves
Mirabaud<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Yves+Mirabaud&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=en10_wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>,
partner at the 191-year-old bank, said in an interview.

“We only put people that we’ve known for many years in the most sensitive
positions,” Mirabaud said. “We try to avoid the basics such as leaving
people alone in a room for hours where they can have access to sensitive
data.”

Still, the latest developments are “worrying,” he said.

“It’s like Big Brother. Do the state and your neighbor have the right to
know everything about you?”

To contact the reporter on this story: Warren
Giles<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Warren+Giles&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=en10_wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>in
Geneva at
wgiles at bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Connelly at
fconnelly at bloomberg.net.


On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 9:30 AM, Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at gmail.com> wrote:

> Black Money Acct Holder Names Cannot be Made Public, so sayeth the
> personally honest PM.
>
>
> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Black-money-info-cant-be-made-public-PM/articleshow/7320434.cms
>
>
> Funny nobody asked WHAT those treaty obligations might be and how they
> prevent the state from releasing those names
> that could very likely be involved with corruption? Like ex-or sitting
> ministers, MPs, high public officials, bureaucrats,
> private citizens working for or with the state, like contractors and so
> forth?
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>