Ralph Nader: Big Credit Suisse’s Sweetheart Deal – OpEd
1. The bank retained its permits and licenses to remain fully operational in the United States.
2. Top management and directors emerged unscathed and were allowed to keep their lucrative positions.
3. State and federal regulators, including the SEC and Federal Reserve, agreed not to take related actions against the bank.
4. Credit Suisse does not have to give the Justice Department and the IRS the names of some 22,000 U.S. customers who engaged in these schemes, citing prohibitive Swiss law, which tough U.S. officials could have challenged with a waiver demand.
Thank you for posting the link. I am not sure what point you are wanting to make (“Go the hell Ralph Nader”), but it is an occasion to raise a question that has been on my mind.
Is the ability of the US to prosecute these cases based upon the fact that the bank in question has valuable property and business within the US? Suppose a foreign bank solicited business from US citizens living in the US with the intent of offering to assist in US tax evasion, but the bank’s operations were completely off shore. Would the US have a handle for prosecution?
Where I am going with this…
FATCA is about information gathering only. The Canadian government has made a deal with the US government for collecting and forwarding some of that information to the IRS. The Canadian government has said however that it would not aid in collecting US penalties. Given the stories about the Swiss banks — and at the risk of raising already elevated fears — could the US attempt to collect penalties through the US operations of Canadian banks, without going through the CRA?
@NorthernShrike
Most of 22,000 people Nader refers are US citizens living in Switzerland. That is why I said go to hell. What business is it of Ralph Nader’s.
@Tim,
I am with you. People crow about making the rich pay their fair share while they likely pay little in taxes themselves. Most Americans pay little beyond SS and medicare and they get that back plus in retirement. If you make a lot of money they want 40%+ of your income. That’s just wrong. No wonder people stick their money in CS. Maybe we should try not taking their stuff and it might stay in the US.
Now of course what I say goes double for an American who lives in a foreign country and gets nothing from the US government.
It seems like CS stood up to the US at some level.
@Neill
Back around the 2010/2011 time period I liked to proudly call myself Mr. HST because I am so in love with the HST something most Americans are decidedly NOT in love with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akPHGX2XYr4
Ralph Nader should crawl back into the hole he’s been hiding in for 20 or 30 years.
America would be so much more credible if they began cleaning up at home.
@Tim
Are you sure the 22,000 are Swiss resident accounts? While there has been a big increase in U.S.-born residents of Switzerland in recent decades, the numbers are still small and some reports said that Credit Suisse had over 22,000 U.S. accounts.
I feel sorry for U.S. workers in Switzerland. The only people I know who live in Switzerland are a translator and a physicist. Their lifestyle is much closer to the ‘Big Bang Theory’ (albeit with excellent chocolate) than the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’.
Jack Townsend is a jackass and ignorant on top of it !!
why ?
take a look at this : …”I have heard the variations of this refrain that, because of the U.S. allegedly short-sighted offshore account initiatives, including punishing the Swiss banks, a material number of Swiss and othoer offshore banks have stopped or will soon stop servicing U.S. citizens. I can’t speak to anecdotal instances where U.S. citizens may have heard or thought they heard that refrain from offshore banks. It is hard to deal with anecdotes unless there is enough data to draw conclusions about the universe of offshore banks…..
http://www.federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.ch/2014/05/thoughts-on-what-swiss-and-other.html#more
It never stops to amaze me how stupid,narrow minded and ignorant a lot of the Homelanders are especially a tax professor aka. attorney like Jack Townsend – not to mention how stubborn he is in realizing that his arguments need a fact check ! What an idiot !!