Please have a look at:
RTS Article in French: McCain and Levin call for extradition of Swiss Bankers.
La lettre souligne que le traité d’extradition helvético-américain n’oblige pas la Suisse à extrader des citoyens ayant uniquement aidé à éviter les impôts. Le DoJ devrait cependant essayer d’obtenir la collaboration de la Suisse, réclament les sénateurs.
The letter emphasizes that the Swiss-American extradition treaty doesn’t oblige Switzerland to extradite citizens who only helped [some person/entity?] to avoid tax. The DoJ should nonetheless attempt to obtain the collaboration of Switzerland, insist the Senators.
Well, I don’t think the Senators have read the Swiss Federal Constitution.
If aforesaid “bankers” are Swiss citizens they cannot be extradited unless they consent.
Art. 25 Protection contre l’expulsion, l’extradition et le refoulement
1 Les Suisses et les Suissesses ne peuvent être expulsés du pays; ils ne peuvent être
remis à une autorité étrangère que s’ils y consentent.Article 25 Protection against expulsion, extradition, refusal of entry at the border 1 Swiss [citizens] cannot be expelled from the country; they cannot be handed over to foreign authorites unless they consent.
Levin, McCain… are you inciting more treason on the part of the Swiss Federal Council? You should be ashamed of yourselves. Respect the Constitution of Switzerland as you should respect your own.
No, and they don’t care! But you know that. 🙂
How about jailing those WALL STREET Bankers who ruined so many peoples lives. America has gone insane.
@just me… I fear I am only bringing this to the attention of IBS and the Internet public for sake of information. Politicians are all at it. Democracy is threatened.
It may be that some bankers have helped some rich people who got money in the US and put it abroad to evade taxes. If such bankers are Swiss citizens they cannot be extradited, period. This should not be viewed as a protection of (alleged) frausters, but as a protection that every democratic country owes its citizens through its constitution (a sort of embodyment of the social contract). My brief acticle was not about the reasons that Levin or whoever might want to accuse certain people, but about the very notion of democracy that the US helped to define so long ago and which nobody over there seems to remember or give a damn.
McCain is senile and Levin is a communist. They should both be sent to the scrap yard.
@Northern….. BRAVO!!
I do not think Levin has the smarts to be a communist. I don’t think he sees anything outside of his little legacy box in the U.S. He surely knows little of the rest of the world nor does he care. He is a horrible at what he does whatever his leanings. Look at his state. It is falling apart.
McCain, is off the rails with this too. Why should they care what the law is in the rest of the world. They ARE the world in their own eyes and that is enough for them.
When WILL these nations stand up and tell the U.S. to go pound sand!
Go to the source:
1. see article 3: http://www.mcnabbassociates.com/Switzerland%20International%20Extradition%20Treaty%20with%20the%20United%20States.pdf
2. The letter:
http://levin.senate.gov/download/levin_mccain_doj_letter_031814
@NotthatTara
I feel like throwing up.
Bravo Atticus!
“I don’t think he [Levin] sees anything outside of his little legacy box in the U.S. He surely knows little of the rest of the world nor does he care. He is a horrible at what he does whatever his leanings. Look at his state. It is falling apart.”
The Legacy of Carl Lenin: The Bankruptcy of Detroit, for which he probably blames the Swiss
http://www.levin.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/levin-statement-on-detroit-filing-for-chapter-9-bankruptcy-protection/
McCain is a like a rabid old dog, ready to start a war with everyone. Can you imagine if that crazy old fucker won the presidency and had the codes for the nukes in his possession?
Switzerland “grew up” providing banking secrecy that provided many a worthy minority (or at least the rich among them) with a means of protecting themselves from tyrannical regimes. These included tyrannies of the majority: don’t think for a minute that the French nobility of the Napoleonic wars or even the Jews of the Nazi era were about to win any popularity polls in their home countries. Their business was always protection without question. Unfortunately that made them easy marks to be used by the unscrupulous as well as virtuous. Drug lords and refugees have rubbed shoulders in many a Zurich banking hall.
Their problem – not Switzerland’s so much as its banks – has been the globalization of business and banking. Had they been content with staying inside fortress Switzerland all would be well. Reaching out and opening branches in New York brought them within reach of the IRS. The rest is history. They had to choose between secrecy and having a slice of New York’s business. History will judge if they chose well.
This is getting awfully stupid!
Coincidental that we were just discussing this question of extradition at the FATCA information session in Montreal this past weekend. What, really, is to stop these clowns from attempting to do the same thing in every other country around the world once they have built their massive FATCA database in Utah? It has always been the same question: why would they collect all this information if they weren’t planning to act on it some day? Why wouldn’t they pressure Canada, for instance, to amend its extradition treaty with the US to allow for the removal of clearly identified “tax evaders”, since the Canadian government was already complicit in their identification? If Canada could so easily capitulate to FATCA, under the guise of our existing tax treaty, what makes anyone think our other bilateral treaties and agreements are safe from such cynical manipulation?
The United States is truly, clinically insane. The world MUST find ways to extricate itself from the web of American power that is founded on nothing but lies and deceit.
Levin and McCain have been drinking too much Geritol.
@bubblebustin
No… they are old & think the US is the whole universe… rights… what is that? They have laws in the US & they are trying to impose them on the rest of the world…
@Deckard1138
Once the laws are changed for foreign country.. new demands will come in… since 2nd class citizen have no rights or privacy.. its a free for all… Yes, I understand canada said they won’t collect $… how do we know that won’t change… they can put a lien & take our assets or pension to pay the US… How about the US just walks across into their new state of Canada & just helps themselves to the 2nd class citizens & canada says.. sorry.. u are a US person.. we can’t help u… I don’t trust either govts.
US officials only read constitutions when it suits them and in a manner that suits them. They can, for example, instigate a coup against a constitutionally legitimate government (Ukraine) but not allow a break off region that votes overwhelmingly to secede, based on constitutional grounds.
Perhaps someone should tweet Putin, suggesting that the US wants to violate the Swiss constitution through the forced extradition of Swiss bankers.
@US_Person_Foreigner
Do you think that they’re just maybe a little drunk with power from being able to do what they’ve managed to do so far in Switzerland? Canada signing an IGA must be a real prize for them, these two old career barnacles.
Well, we already know that the U.S. government is quite happy to employ high-pressure tactics to demand that other countries to find a way around their own constitutions and other written laws. Just look at the Claudia Hoerig case, where even a relatively junior congressman like Tim Ryan (D-OH) managed to get the House Appropriations Committee to defund visas for Brazilians because Brazil wanted to follow its own constitution and refuse to extradite its own citizen who was accused of murder in a foreign country. And the end result:
And Ted Poe (R-TX) wants to employ the same tactic against Vietnam because — as is precisely their right under the treaty they signed with the U.S. in 2008 — Vietnam does not accept deportations of Vietnamese citizens who arrived in the U.S. before the two countries officially established diplomatic relations in 1995.
Just goes to show that signing a treaty with the U.S. is utterly worthless: the U.S. will do whatever it wants regardless of the treaty, while pressuring your country not to assert any of the rights it actually has under the treaty.
@bubblebustin
U could be right…. they see the US might is making all these countries hop on to the train wreck… not realizing… its the frigging 30% they are worried about. If u take the 30% off the table… let countries decide to do it or not… bet u will see alot of birds flying around… as they are flipped off… But their attitude is typical… americans in the US seems to live under the illusion… everyone wants to be a citizen & want to be american. I have a gc.. never intended to become american… American side of the family would keep on trying to sell it to me… to have the best thing in the world… I don’t even want this frigging GC… if it wasn’t for my immediate family… I would never cross the US border again.
Remember this oldie but goodie from John McCain?
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran! The guy needs his head examined.
.
Of course the USA is special. Here’s proof….this quote taken directly from . This is about the “Reed amendment.”
“American citizenship is a privilege. But it seems that a privileged few are trying to game the system by accumulating wealth and benefiting from the greatness of the United States and then renouncing their citizenship to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. They are welcome to leave our country, but they should not be welcomed to return without playing by the rules and paying what they owe,” said Reed. – See more at: http://www.reed.senate.gov/news/release/reed-offers-amendment-to-prevent-ex-citizen-tax-dodgers-from-reentering-the-us#sthash.dBSRqEru.dpuf
Aren’t you glad you’re out of there? What a Moron!
The market has spoken: U.S. citizenship is worth 200 egg rolls
http://www.ryot.org/immigration-officer-accepts-hundred-of-egg-rolls-in-exchange-for-citizenship/603149
From a Genevalunch.com article “American clients the losers in US-Swiss bankers row”:
“BCGE, Geneva’s cantonal bank, has been sending letters to American citizens with accounts at the bank threatening to freeze the accounts if they do not immediately provide proof they have filed US tax papers, a move that a lawyer representing several clients is calling illegal. Marc Béguin tells newspaper Le Temps in an article published 18 March that the bank is creating confusion and making illegal demands with letters to clients where it does not distinguish between two key agreements: requirements for the banks that arise from the Justice Department agreement with scores of Swiss banks and the Fatca agreement that requires banks as of 2014 to announce foreign assets held by American “persons”, US citizens and green card holder.
Meanwhile, an American family, resident in Switzerland, who renounced their citizenship a year ago tells me that their accounts of several years standing were unceremoniously closed by the BCGE recently without prior notice on the basis that they were once American. The bank then sent a bill for the time it spent going through their records to discover this.”
http://genevalunch.com/2014/03/18/american-clients-losers-us-swiss-bankers-row/
Once marked with US citizenship, the person can be scarred for life.
That is persecution.
@Eric, Thanks for the update about Claudia Hoerig. It seems that the case is still far from over, due to Brazil’s slow and convoluted judicial system with two supreme courts.
http://www.wfmj.com/story/25010418/the-hoerig-case-7-years-later
I agree that she should be tried in court due to the strong evidence, but Tim Ryan’s obsession with this case really annoys me. Defunding visas is useless because visas are paid entirely by fees and don’t need government funds. I think that he is insisting so much only because the victim was a US military pilot.
Brazil offered to try her in Brazil, but the US refused. The maximum sentence for any crime in Brazil, including murder, is 30 years in prison, while the US (Ohio, where the crime occured) has the death penalty.
@Innocente
I fear this can happen in Canada. The USA changes their rules at will.
@FromTheWilderness
I feel the same way.