Switzerland as an Offshore Jurisdiction
Thinking of using Switzerland as an offshore jurisdiction, think again! The following comes from the Swiss embassy page and speaks for itself showing clearly that Swiss banking secrecy is not what it used to be. Bank Secrecy Facts Banking secrecy does not protect criminal or illegal activity Swiss banking secrecy is in no way absolute. It is lifted immediately if a Swiss judge or prosecutor issues a lifting order in the course of a domestic or international criminal investigation. This includes foreign criminal investigations of terrorist financing, money laundering, insider trading, and tax fraud. Measures to Prevent and Combat Financial Crimes Switzerland employs comprehensive legislation to prevent and combat financial crimes. The Money Laundering Act dictates that financial institutions, e.g. banks, fund managers, insurance entities, security dealers, and casinos know the identity of their clients. In addition, financial institutions must clarify the source of the funds and keep records for at least 10 years after the termination of the business relationship. Swiss law forbids banks to accept money that they suspect originates from a crime. Banks are required to freeze immediately an account with suspicious transactions and to notify the Money Laundering Reporting Office. If criminal proceedings result from the investigation, the account remains frozen. With no exception, Swiss laws oblige bank officers to testify and provide information to the Swiss authorities in case of a criminal investigation. Failure to comply with these requirements is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 1 million Swiss Francs. There are no anonymous accounts in Switzerland Switzerland outlaws “anonymous accounts”: account holders must provide without exception their identity documents to banks and banks are required to verify this information. This rule also applies to numbered accounts. Numbered accounts are no different from ordinary accounts except that the detailed data of the account holder is only accessible to selected senior bank officers rather than to all bank employees. That said, all of the data in numbered accounts is accessible to the authorities conducting criminal investigations, in the same way it is for ordinary accounts. This is the end of the quotation from the Swiss embassy page. Switzerland has no anonymous bearer share corporations; in fact Swiss lawyers purchase hundreds of anonymous Panama bearer share corporations each month and use them for their clients. A Swiss bank will pay little attention to a depositor unless the client has more than $25,000,000. Opening balances with Swiss banks can frequently be $100,000 to $250,000 for the older established large banks. Swiss banks are known to ask American clients for their social security numbers. Swiss Banks charge outrageous fees often paying no interest, instead charging you fees each month just to keep your account there. These fees will dwindle down your assets. The Swiss Post Office Bank is a poor substitute for a bank. Many unscrupulous web sites sell Swiss Bank Accounts and what they provide to you is little more than the forms to open up an account with the Swiss Post Office Bank. The Swiss Post office Bank has no idea they are selling these forms. This Postal bank is a system designed for a Swiss person to pay their utility bills and other recurring monthly bills; it is not like a real bank. Frequently the Swiss citizen has their payroll check deposited into this account electronically. We tried opening up such an account to see what would happen. They do have a web site but we were never able to figure out how to send or receive a wire transfer. They sent us information in a variety of languages, rarely in the correct language. It took a long time to get the account open 6-8 weeks. Documents had to be apostilled and notarized. I would think almost everyone who opens such an account would frustrate out and never use it since it is so unfriendly. Since it is not a “real” bank being government owned we never could figure out if it was covered by the Swiss banking laws or not. Switzerland we see as a has been banking haven and is no longer a valued jurisdiction for privacy. For more information on offshore jurisdictions go to: www.panamalaw.org Gissela Martinez is a senior partner at Panama Legal Law Firm based in Panama. |
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