UBS Admits To Massive Tax Evasion Scheme
Banking giant UBS has agreed to pay $780 million and turn over once-secret Swiss banking records to settle allegations it conspired to defraud the U.S. government of taxes owed by big clients.
. . . UBS executives helped U.S. taxpayers open new accounts in the names of sham entities.
Prosecutors contend that UBS executives used encrypted software and other counter-surveillance techniques to prevent anyone from detecting that they were actively marketing such Swiss bank secrecy — and tax evasion — to American taxpayers.
The clients, in turn, filed false tax returns that omitted the income they earned in their Swiss accounts, according to the court papers.
Federal officials said they had pulled aside a veil of secrecy that hid a corrupt international banking practice.
“This was not a mere compliance oversight, but rather a knowing crime motivated by greed and disrespect for the law,” said Alexander Acosta, U.S. attorney for southern Florida.
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/blog/2009/02/ubs-admits-to-massive-tax-evasion.html
In 2006 and 2007 UBS was having everyone brush up on their “‘know your customer’ (KYC) skills and the identification of new trends in suspicious behavior” — even operations staff (on the computer side in my case). We had to “undertake regular training courses, [. . .] in the form of on-line training” or compliance modules as they were called. These had absolutely zero to do with our jobs, we never dealt with clients, let alone their money, so we used to call in banker friends to help us with the online tests. (Above quotes from “Contributing to society, Preventing money laundering, corruption and terrorist financing,” http://www.ubs.com/1/e/about/corporate_responsibility/society/fighting_money_laundering.html. OOPSIE, that page has been deleted! OK, here’s another one: http://www.ubs.com/1/e/polandcareers/ourcultureandvalues/corporate_responsibility/society/fighting_money_laundering.html. Note that this page is under the heading, Our Culture and Values — one trait of the truly advanced, truly high ranking sociopathic mind is the depth and breadth of its hypocrisy. Criticizing a sociopath for being hypocritical is like criticizing a fish for swimming — it’s simply their nature.)
It’s apparent now what the strategy was — window dressing. UBS was putting on a big show of complying with anti-money laundering laws by having all firm personnel be trained in recognizing it — all the while carrying out that very thing through encrypted software and other counter-surveillance techniques (according to the U.S. DOJ).
Now what kind of mind would think a transparent ruse like this would accomplish anything? Perhaps an arrogant, childish sociopathic mind. Obviously not every crook is a sociopath. However, in my opinion, sociopathy is the wind in the sails of evil and corruption. The normally corrupt are forever fighting their consciences, following the conscienceless, the sociopaths, is a relief to them.
Unfortunately it seems UBS is still the same bank that accepted holocaust gold and sought to deprive the heirs of concentration camp victims their rightful funds. As late as 1997 bank management thought they could order underlings to destroy Nazi-era banking records. Fortunately, Christopher Meili, a security guard, turned them in. (For more information: “‘Nazi gold’ settlement mixed intangibles with money,” http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/views/y/1998/08/hirsch.nazigold.aug21/; Swiss Banks and World War II, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banking_in_Switzerland.)
Suggesting to a sociopathic banker that accepting gold collected from the teeth of concentration camp victims was wrong or the same to an athlete gaining the top of the podium through fraud would only convince the sociopath that the questioner was the one with the problem. Their code: you call it cheating, I call it winning. If the point was to amass gold, the source, to a sociopath, would be utterly of no concern.
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The Path Whisperer 