Jérôme Turquey has a fascinating blog on a German television documentary where a reporter asked a number of banks if they would help move illicit funds in Liechtenstein to a Luxembourg bank. As he notes:
The adviser of the first bank praised the high standards of safety of the country which allowed anonymous placements with numbered accounts. This adviser even proposed the discrete transfer of the money from Liechtenstein to Luxembourg.
The adviser the second bank specified that the bank had great experience in the field and that there was nothing to fear coming from its head office.
The adviser of the third bank was more careful, informing the factitious clients of the risks on bleaching but presented the various means possible to place money without paying tax.
The adviser of the fourth bank refused to advise the customer
And who says banks don’t help tax evaders?
As Jérôme notes:
The documentary is perfect implementation of Lucien Thiel’s doctrine: that’s to say:
- It is not our duty to control if the tax payer was honest,
- Banking secrecy remains : Luxembourg is not compelled to communicate its client’s data.
That might be what Switzerland and Luxembourg say for now. I do not believe this will last.
2 Comments
I wonder how many of the four banks made suspicious activity reports?
Alex
We know that in Jersey in 2006 none of them did.
We know they ran 10s of thousands of accounts on which evasion was taking place. They were found by the UK tax amnesty.
I believe they must have known this - because they had the evidence from the EU STD to know who did and did not want their interest income declared to HMRC, and therefore who was likely to be evading. Depsite that apparently they could not identify a single case of evasion to report in Jersey in 2006.
I don’t believe that.
I believe they chose not to see.
This is the surest evidence that places like Jersey have great financial services rule books, and absolutely no willing to use them.
And the UK big 4 banks play a part in that.
as you and I know - as a result they help contribute to deaths in the developing countries of the world. It’s not enough though to say let that be on their conscience. We have to stop them.
Richard
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