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| Europe |
| Fed fines Switzerland’s UBS $100 million |
| 2004-05-10 |
| The Federal Reserve fined Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS AG, $100 million Monday for allegedly sending dollars to Cuba, Libya, Iran and Yugoslavia in violation of U.S. sanctions against those countries. UBS operated a trading center for dollars in its Zurich headquarters under contract with the Federal Reserve of New York, to help the circulation of new U.S. notes and the retirement of old ones. A condition for the Swiss bank was not to deliver or accept dollar notes through the depot to or from banks in countries under U.S. trade sanctions. In an announcement, the Fed said that UBS had violated the agreement and that some former officers and employees of the bank, whom it did not name, intentionally concealed the transactions by falsifying UBS’ monthly reports to the U.S. central bank. The individuals were not part of the order issued Monday by the Fed, in which UBS agreed to pay a $100 million civil fine without admitting to the allegations. The bank said Monday that some employees have been dismissed and disciplinary measures were taken against others employees. The Swiss Federal Banking Commission has reprimanded UBS and will inspect its operations to ensure that corrective actions are effective, the bank said. "UBS recognizes that very serious mistakes were made, accepts the sanctions and expresses its regret," the bank said in a statement. "It has already instituted corrective and disciplinary measures and has decided to exit the international banknote trading business." The New York Fed terminated its contract with UBS last October. |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |
| #5 Worse still, Zman, when Holocaust victims' family have gone to Switzerland to make a claim on their dead relatives' money, the Swiss have demanded they produce a death certificate, knowing full well the Nazis didn't make out any death certificates. Switzerland was the first and foremost money laundry in the world during WWII and owe a good portion, if not most, of their country's wealth to Hitler's efforts to make Europe Judenrein. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-05-10 4:47:15 PM |
| #4 It's not the first time they've overtly assisted murderous thugs. Even this offense pales by comparison to their concealment and subterfuge regarding looted Jewish Holocaust holdings. The Swiss banking system has little to brag about. Nazi Gold and Loot During the war, the Nazis stole gold, jewelry, and other valuables from the millions of Jews they murdered. The Germans needed a way to place these commodities in the international market so that they could use the money they received in exchange for their war effort. The Swiss helped facilitate the exchange in addition to holding Nazi accounts. Many speculate that some of the gold that the Swiss accepted were the dental gold and wedding rings taken from Jews at the camps. Bank Accounts Many Jews never physically attempted to reach Switzerland, but attempted to protect their money by opening Swiss bank accounts. Many Jews who opened these accounts perished in the Holcocaust. There are many survivors who remember that their parents opened accounts, but they don't know the account numbers nor have any paperwork concerning the accounts, so they were turned away from the banks after the war. Some banks requested death certificates of the account holder before they would allow the survivors to access the money. This was a completely unreasonable request since millions were murdered in the Holocaust with no official record of their deaths. For several decades after the war, individual survivors petitioned and requested information about these accounts with little to no success. In 1974, the Swiss announced that they found 4.68 million Swiss francs in dormant accounts. This money was divided between two Swiss relief agencies and to the Polish and Hungarian governments. In 1996, U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY) brought the subject of the dormant accounts to the U.S. government's attention, and hearings were started to unearth the truth about the survivors' claims. Pressure from the United States has angered the Swiss, who feel that this is an attack upon their reputation for the benefit of U.S. banking agencies. The questions concerning the morality of the Swiss during the war came into the public limelight when a security guard at a Swiss bank noticed on January 14, 1997 a pile of documents pertaining to Nazi and wartime accounts waiting to be shredded. The Swiss claim that these were of no interest to the hearings. On January 29, 1997, the city of New York considered boycotting Swiss banks. Eight days later, three Swiss banks announced that they would create a humanitarian fund of 100 million Swiss francs (U.S. $70 million). Since most of the Jews who opened these accounts were killed, there are no accurate figures about how much money Jews really placed within the Swiss banks. Jewish organizations believe there could be billions, while the Swiss have only uncovered several million. [For a country whose fame is reliant upon their meticulous record-keeping, it is extremely conspicuous how these particular accounts fell through the cracks.] Most recently, in June, the Swiss government announced that it would establish a $5 billion humanitarian foundation. But what about the survivors of the Holocaust whose families' entire fortunes were stored in Swiss accounts? As of July 23, 1997, the Swiss have produced a list of dormant accounts that will be accessible to the public. Any person with a valid claim on these accounts will go through an accounting firm and then an international panel will decide whether or not there is reasonable evidence to award the claims. - EMPHASIS ADDED - |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-10 4:41:42 PM |
| #3 Don't you love the way they not only profited from the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust by getting their art, jewelry and cash (they pretended to German Jews that their money would be safe there and that they would "probably" take in refugees from Germany, which they certainly did not!), but got the rest of Europe to lie about how they bankrolled Hitler and kept the war going for as long as it did, all the while pretending that they were "neutral." Even today, they're harboring God knows how many terrorists and making interest on their money. They are thieves and accessories to mass murder with megabuckets of blood on their hands. A thing like this huge fine is TERRIFIC and will get them where it hurts--in their Jew-hating wallets! |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-05-10 4:41:08 PM |
| #2 I lived with the Swiss for 5 years. I remember a few nights after 911 and some of the "sympathy" they had for us. There were quite a bit of celebration from our "friends" in western Europe. I heard this more than once "It is a tragedy, but you kind of deserve it....." They are cowards! |
| Posted by: Long Hair Republican 2004-05-10 4:35:55 PM |
| #1 Remember, the Swiss never "take sides" i.e. they are not moral, or immoral, they are amoral. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-10 3:44:43 PM |