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MIAMI, March 10, 2009 -- Switzerland should rely on the quality of its banking system to compete for business globally, not simply a willingness to turn a blind eye to illegal conduct.
"A private banking system cannot survive in that form when it is buttressed by fundamental concepts of lack of transparency and serves as a perceived haven for tax evasion or, worse yet, ill gotten gains."
That is the view of Andrew Weinstein, a partner with Holland + Knight law firm in Miami who has more than 30 years' combined government and private sector experience handling complex tax planning and compliance matters for ultra high net worth individuals, including representing them in civil and criminal tax matters before the IRS and U. S. Department of Justice.
"The Swiss concept of tax fraud is entirely inconsistent with current economic realities," Weinstein told OffshoreAlert.
He added: "A private banking system cannot survive in that form when it is buttressed by fundamental concepts of lack of transparency and serves as a perceived haven for tax evasion or, worse yet, ill gotten gains.
"The Swiss banking system would be better served by pro-active efforts to be an active partner in global compliance and where money flows into Switzerland because of quality of financial expertise, and not to hide it from proper authorities. Stated another way, didn't WWII teach us some good lessons?"
He and one of his fellow partners at Holland + Knight, Kevin Packman, pointed to last week's U. S. Senate hearing on offshore tax havens as "further evidence of the global implications of non-compliance" by financial institutions.
At the hearing, Swiss bank UBS was severely criticized by U. S. officials and law-makers, with John DiCicco, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's tax division, refusing to rule out criminal prosecutions of any UBS executives who were implicated in helping U. S. taxpayers commit tax evasion.
Senator Carl Levin, who led the hearing as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, described Switzerland as "one of the most vocal supports of bank secrecy in the world", adding that secrecy "is not a value to be protected. It is part and parcel of a conspiracy to commit crime under our law."
Bob Roach, who is the Counsel & Chief Investigator on Senator Levin's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, will be joining Messrs. Weinstein and Packman and IRS Special Trial Attorney John McDougal to discuss the tax investigations into UBS and LGT Bank, of Liechtenstein, at the 7th Annual OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference, which is being held in Miami Beach, on April 26-28.
The panel will take an in-depth look at flagship tax investigations being conducted by U. S. authorities. This will include looking at the circumstances under which a foreign bank can be forced to produce information to the IRS and an analysis of the legal rights of banks and their clients when stolen data is passed on to tax authorities who then try to use it to prosecute them.
Andrew Weinstein (pictured left), Bob Roach, who is the Counsel & Chief Investigator on Senator Levin's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, IRS Special Trial Attorney John McDougal and Kevin Packman, Partner, Holland + Knight will discuss the tax investigations into UBS and LGT Bank, of Liechtenstein, at the 7th Annual OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference, which is being held in Miami Beach, on April 26-28.
The panel will take an in-depth look at flagship tax investigations being conducted by U. S. authorities, and will include:
- How much information about clients has been handed over to the tax authorities of the world's major countries?
- Can a foreign bank such as UBS be forced to produce information to the IRS in the USA? If so, under what circumstances?
- In the case of LGT Bank, is evidence stolen from the bank admissible in legal proceedings? What are the legal rights of the tax authorities, clients of the banks and the banks themselves?
- How will these investigations change private banking?
Attend this and 27 other unique sessions presented by industry experts from the world's top organizations at the 7th Annual OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference, where new practitioners and experienced professionals will find opportunities to enhance their knowledge, expand capabilities and learn new skills.
