GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Myanmar/Birma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was easily elected to parliament, a move widely applauded in the West, after her years of house arrest by the country’s military regime.
Recognition by the state of her election is part of a series of reforms that in January led the European Union to lift some restrictions on the country’s leaders. Tuesday 3 March, Switzerland’s ministry for the economy said it is also easing travel restrictions, in line with EU measures. The change affects 87 Burmese, including President Thein Sein, but assets frozen since 2000 remain blocked and other restrictions such as an embargo on arms and precious stones remain in place.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The first international meeting with experts from 15 countries to focus on the Arab spring and returning embezzled funds to Arab nations ended Tuesday afternoon 24 January in Lausanne with a call for greater coordination. The meeting was the sixth in the Lausanne Process, launced in 2001 by Switzerland’s Foreign Affairs Department to promote dialogue between countries affected by corruption and recipient countries of illicitly acquired assets.
The two-day meeting in Lausanne, in the run-up to the World Economic Forum in Davos, pulled in government representatives, specialists and advisors from international organizations to review “first lessons learned”, one year after the toppling of dictatorships in the Middle East began. Switzerland, which was the first country to freeze Tunisian leaders’ assets, 19 January 2011, said in September that the CHF60 million identified in Switzerland is only a small part of the billions hidden but that recipient countries will have to work closely to untangle the money trails.
UK residents with Swiss accounts affected in 2013
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss and UK governments Thursday 6 October signed an agreement reached earlier, that will allow the British government to tax income on assets held in Swiss banks by UK residents.
The Swiss government announced that “Federal Councillor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and the UK Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke signed a tax agreement. Under this agreement, persons resident in the United Kingdom can retrospectively tax their existing banking relationships in Switzerland either by making a one-off tax payment or by disclosing their accounts. Future investment income and capital gains of British bank clients in Switzerland will be subject to a final withholding tax, and the proceeds of this will be transferred to the British authorities by Switzerland.”
In addition, says Bern, the new agreement will give Swiss banks better access to the UK financial market.
The agreement is similar to one signed in September with the German government and to one being negotiated with France.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Federal Tribunal has ordered a new trial for Abba Abacha, son of former Nigerian General Sani Abacha, who ruled the country for five years in the 1990s. He was suspected of stealing more than $2 billion and after his death his sons managed the money.
Abba Abacha was given a two-year suspended sentence in June 2010 by a Geneva court and his assets confiscated, under Switzerland’s programme covering stolen potentate funds. Nigeria had asked the Swiss government for judicial assistance in 1999 to recover the money.
The Swiss high court has ordered the new trial because Abacha was refused a visa and therefore could not attend the earlier trial in Geneva.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss officials, like those in the European Union, say they must wait for a new United Nations resolution before allowing financial institutions to release frozen assets of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi and his entourage, but several countries are meeting in Doha today, 24 August, to discuss an emergency request for $2.5 from Libya’s National Transitional Council.
The UN Security Council’s resolution in early 2011 to block Qaddafi assets led to an estimated $100 billion being frozen, in several countries, according to the Financial Times, which lists the US as the largest holder, at $37b, and the US $12, with Germany holding another $7.3b.
The exact amount frozen in Switzerland has not been confirmed by the Swiss government, but it is likely to be a fraction of the total blocked, possibly less than CHF1 billion, according to earlier figures released by the government. Libya withdrew much of the money it had in Swiss banks and other financial institutions in 2008 after Hannibal Qaddafi, the younger son of Muammar, was arrested at a Geneva hotel for attacking one of his employees.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland’s extended list of individuals from Syria, including President Bashar Al-Assad, whose assets are being blocked, is effective today, Wednesday 25 May. The government yesterday said it was expanding its 18 May list of people whose assets are frozen and who cannot travel to or through Switzerland, from 13 to 18.
The president is now listed, along with Mahir (or Maher) Al-Assad, as the mastermind of the repression against Syrian protesters, but he is also named as the organizer.
The four others added to the sanctions list are all accused of aiding repression:
Munzir Al-Assad, born 1961 (correction to earlier spelling)
Asif Shawkat, born 1950
Hisham Ikhtiyar, born 1941
Faruq Al Shar’, born 1938
Muhammad Nasif Khayrbik, born 1937
European Union reacts to news of 11 more civilian deaths by Syrian forces
Protesters across Syria took to the streets, calling for President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation Friday, after prayers, and security forces reacted with force, killing 11 more people, according to human rights activists. The European Union, which has been threatening financial sanctions, “agreed today to impose asset freezes and travel restrictions against Syrian officials responsible for the violent repression, which rights campaigners say has killed more than 560 people,” reports the Irish Times.
Details of who is affected by the sanctions and what assets are being blocked were not announced immediately by the EU but news agency AFP says it was told 13 officials are affected, but not the Syrian president, and that the freeze will be reviewed Monday.
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian, Le Monde (Fr)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, in Tunisia Monday 2 May for a meeting of regional ambassadors from Switzerland, told Swiss news agency ATS that to date a total of CHF830 million in funds linked to three Middle Eastern dictators have now been identified and therefore frozen.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry had previously said only that “tens of millions” of assets linked to Mubarak had been found in the week after the government sent the order to financial institutions to block the funds. The government had not until Monday given figures for Ben Ali or Qadaffi and those close to them.
Banks and other financial institutions must try to identify and freeze assets immediately, once the order to do so is sent by Bern. The fine for not providing information is CHF20,000 plus a fine of 10 times the value of the object, whether it is bank funds or real estate or other assets.
The amounts Calmy-Rey announced appear small compared to many estimates for the wealth of the three. The Financial Times‘s Haig Simonian in Zurich writes that the CHF360 million mentioned in connection with Qadaffi is “a surprisingly high figure, considering Colonel Muammer Gaddafi had declared he had withdrawn all funds – amounting to some $5bn – from Switzerland after a bitter dimploatic spat between the two countries two years ago.”
The Wall Street Journal points out that the Qadaffi assets in Switzerland are far smaller than the $30 billion frozen by the US.
The amounts given by Calmy-Rey, who is also Switzerland’s foreign minister:
- CHF360 million Libya’s Muammar Qadaffi, frozen 21 Frebruary 2011
- CHF410m Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, frozen 2 February 2011, about 10 percent of all Egyptian assets in Switzerland that the Swiss central bank could identify as originating from Egypt at the end of 2009.
- CHF60 Tunisia’s Ben Ali, frozen 19 January 2011: this is about 10 percent of the assets the Swiss central bank said were in Switzerland and that originated in Tunisia at the end of 2009.
The amount of money in Swiss banks, from Libya and Egypt, has fallen steadily since 2005, according to the Swiss National Bank, possibly reflecting Switzerland’s increasingly tough stance on actively identifying dictators’ assets.
In addition to the three listed above, Switzerland in 2011 also froze the assets of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbabgbo, 19 January.
International meeting ends without further decisions on aiding Libyan rebels
Qaddafi forces push back rebels
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss Federal Council Wednesday 30 March formally adopted the UN Security Council’s measures against Libya, taken 26 February, as well as the European Union’s decisions concerning Libya, 28 February and including EU complementary actions. The move by the Swiss cabinet Wednesday cancels Switzerland’s own moves 21 February to unilaterally block funds that may belond to the Libyan leader and those close to him.
The EU’s decisions in particular duplicate Switzerland’s own actions in the financial area: the EU has voted to forbid supplying any materials that could be used for internal repression in Libya, and the list of people affected by financial sanctions and travel restrictions has been lengthened, from Switzerland’s original list.
The move by Bern also brings to a halt criticism from some corners that Switzerland acted too soon and alone in blocking Qaddafi assets.
Qaddafi clan assets have now been officially frozen by Austria and France in addition to Britain, the US and Switzerland, with estimates varying widely but the money expected to be in the tens of billions of dollars. The latest confirmations of blocked funds came in broadcast interviews in France and Austria.
Links to other sites: Le Temps (Fr), AP/680 News
Bern lists 26 whose assets must be blocked by banks and others
Update 21:40 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Foreign Affairs Department Thursday announced that banks and other financial institutions have been given the order to block assets belonging to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, his family and those close to him, starting at 18:00 24 February, for a period of three years. The step was taken, Bern says, to avoid the possibility of any Libyan state funds that remain in Switzerland from being misappropriated by the Qaddafi clan.
The 26 persons whose assets must be frozen are listed below but it is not clear how much money or real estate they may hold in Switzerland and that would thus be blocked.
Libyan assets in Swiss banks likely to be relatively small
Libya once reportedly held considerable assets in Switzerland, but following the 2008 affair where Hannibal Qaddafi, the Libyan leader’s younger son, was arrested in Geneva, much of the money was pulled out of Swiss banks, the Libyan state news agency said in June 2009, citing a figure of CHF7 billion. Swiss sources at the time said the figure was closer to CHF5 billion.
The 2009 Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) annual reports on banks show Libya to have had only CHF613 million invested in Switzerland, in liabilities, a drop from CHF1.2 billion in 2005, figures well below those given by Libyan sources. Fiduciary funds had also dropped to half of the 2005 level, from CHF402m to CHF205m.
The SNB numbers cover all investments in Switzerland, by the government, companies and individuals.
Switzerland has been quicker than other countries to freeze the assets, with Qaddafi still technically in office, just as it was with assets of Egypt’s fallen leader Mubarak and Tunisia’s Ben Ali.
Once the government in Bern gives the order to freeze assets banks and financial institutions are obliged to report these quickly to the government. The fine for not providing information is CHF20,000, plus a fine of 10 times the value of the object.
Qaddafi clan named
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Thirty banks and financial institutions have reported and blocked some CHF80 million in assets belonging to former Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, Swiss federal police office spokesperson Danièle Bersier said Sunday. He confirmed to news agency ATS information that had appeared earlier in the day in Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung.
Ben Ali fled Tunisia 19 January and five days later the federal government issued an order to freeze assets belonging to him and 40 people in his entourage. The new Tunisian government will now need to request judicial assistance in order to start a court case to obtain the funds if they were obtained illegally.
Swiss lawmakers and the government pushed through new law to be able to return Haiti's money
“It’s a step in the right direction” says assets recovery lawyer, calling Swiss law “pioneering”
Update 20:00 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Some CHF6 ($5.8) million in assets that were placed in Switzerland by Haiti’s ruling Duvalier family before they fell from power in 1986 have now been blocked under a new Swiss law, the Federal Act on the Restitution of Assets of Politically Exposed Persons obtained by Unlawful Means (RIAA).
The law was designed to enable funds such as the Duvalier money to be returned to a country that is unable to obtain them through normal international agreements, notably mutual assistance treaties. A government may be too weak in the wake of a dictator, or may not feel it can afford a lengthy court battle.
Switzerland was legally obliged to unfreeze the assets of the Mobutu clan from the Democratic Republic of Congo in July 2009 after 12 years of court efforts to avoid this.
It came close to being forced for similar reasons to return money to Duvalier in early 2010 despite the government’s determination to avoid this, and a decision by the Federal Criminal Court that the assets were illegally obtained by the Duvaliers.
“Asset recovery is not working as well as it should” worldwide, notes London-based Steven Philippsohn, senior partner of PCB Litigation, who specializes in corporate fraud and asset recovery. He is chairman of the UK Commercial Fraud Lawyers Association. “The major problem is getting criminal proceedings brought in the first place. A country that is trying to get its act together after a dictator will have other priorities.”
He calls the new Swiss law “pioneering” because it allows what are known as “failed countries” to ask for help without pressing criminal charges first, but he cautions that countries with mutual assistance treaties will not be able to take advantage of this.
It is not clear if this covers Tunisia and Cote d’Ivoire, two countries where political leaders’ potential assets have been blocked by the Swiss in 2011. Such treaties could bode well, if criminal charges are brought for stolen funds. “There’s a very effective system in Switzerland, where once a criminal case is launched the investigator has access to banking records. I don’t despair, as a litigator,” says Philippsohn, one of 60 lawyers involved in Fraudnet, an international group that works for very large corporations and sometimes governments to recover assets. ”
Philippsohn and James Nason of the Swiss Bankers Association, who was interviewed by swissinfo, agree that despots who steal not only cover their trails well but they use speed to stay ahead of efforts to bring criminal charges against them. “It doesn’t take rocket science to see that all the people in control of this money need to do is to move it to another country, add another layer to the money laundering. A lot of countries would happily take this money without asking any questions,” says Philippsohn.
Assets frozen for 25 years, but legal battle could soon end
The Duvalier assets have been frozen for the past 25 years but they have been at the centre of a legal tug of war that may now be coming to an end.
The Swiss government has said it wants to see the money, gained illicitly, returned to the people of Haiti. The next step, under the new law, will be for the Swiss Federal Council, the cabinet, to ask the Federal Finance Department to open “a confiscation action” with the Federal Administrative Tribunal, a Swiss high court.
The FDFA (Federal Foreign Affairs Department) notes in a statement 1 February that “the Confederation will take legal action before the Federal Administrative Court to enable frozen assets to be forfeited. Once confiscated, the assets will be returned to Haiti in order to improve the living conditions of the Haitian people. The RIAA illustrates the policy that Switzerland has pursued for the last 20 years in order to avoid being used as a safe haven for stolen assets by PEPs (politically exposed persons).”
Duvalier’s move, to appeal or not appeal, will determine speed at which money is returned
Much thus depends on whether or not Jean-Claude Duvalier decides to appeal a new high court decision. He has not given any indication of what he will do, and his surprise return to Haiti and subsequent detention by authorities in mid-January, leaves this an open question.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s new law covering potentate funds, dictator’s assets frozen in Swiss banks, goes into effect 1 February 2011. The first beneficiary of what is called the Restitution of Illicit Assets Act is likely to be Haiti, which is scheduled to receive CHF6 million that have been frozen since Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, fled the country in 1986.
Baby Doc’s surprising return to Haiti 17 January has provoked questions about why he would risk prosecution, and one of the suggestions put forward is that he hopes to keep the Swiss from returning money his family stashed in Swiss banks. The Duvaliers fought long and hard to force Switzerland to unfreeze their assets, saying these were legally gained. Baby Doc’s notoriously expensive lifestyle and divorce in France have sparked rumours that he is short of money.
Switzerland has struggled to keep the funds out of the Duvalier clan‘s hands for several years, cobbled by its own laws that said funds could be returned only if a country asks for judicial assistance once the dictator is gone. Haiti’s plight, a country too poor and disorganized to ask for help, underlined the shortcomings of the law.
The new law, passed in October 2010 (text), will, under certain circumstances, make it possible to return funds to a country that has not been able to follow the normal international legal path to demand their return.
Duvalier, whose motives for returning to Haiti remain a mystery, now faces charges of fraud and embezzlement.
Links to other sites: BBC, France24/AFP, New York Times
Laurent Gbagbo joins Tunisia’s deposed president Ben Ali in losing access to Swiss assets
(Update 15:45 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Former President Ben Ali of Tunisia, toppled by a popular revolution that forced him to flee the country 14 January, will not be able to touch any assets he may have in Switzerland, effective immediately. The Swiss president, Micheline Calmy-Rey, who is also the foreign affairs minister, made the announcement Wednesday morning 19 January at a press conference.
Ben Ali’s “entourage” is including in the process to block assets, should illicit funds be found.
Ben Ali’s and entourage’s possible real estate: no sales
Real estate sales of any property that may belong to him are blocked as well, to avoid funds leaving the country in order to get around the freeze.
The government did not confirm that Ben Ali actually has assets, whether bank accounts or real estate, although Calmy-Rey says there is evidence that people close to Ben Ali have made several trips to Switzerland in recent months. Bank have been on the alert and closely following events, with a legal obligation to alert the federal government if they noted suspicious account movements.
Switzerland has increased its banking surveillance and more closely tied it to political events in recent years, following problems freezing some dictators’ assets because the government did not move quickly enough or work closely enough with banks.
Americans wondering what their tax returns should look like can take heart from the model return for 2010 filed by their president, Barack Obama, and his wif Michelle.
Few will be able to declare a $1,600 dog as a gift, the case for the Obama’s Bo, from Senator Ted Kennedy shortly before his death. And none will be able to claim something comparable to the $1 million he received for the Nobel Peace Prize, then gave away to charity. But many will be relieved to see how generous is the spread allowed when declaring other assets: a gift of bank shares from the estate of his grandmother sold for between $250-500,000. He made a loss on those.
The couple’s safe investments such as Treasury bonds, were valued at somewhere between $2.2 and 7.5m.
The most interesting thing for your average US taxpayer might be that the Obamas paid $1.4 million in taxes, on a salary for the president of $400,000, showing that the American dream of earning more than your boss pays you is still worth pursuing.
Links to other sites: AP, BusinessInsider, the White House tax report
Swiss households' real estate assets, now more transparent
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The net worth of Swiss households fell in 2008 from an average of CHF334,000 per capita to CHF312,000. About CHF200,000 of this is real estate and claims against insurance and pension plans. The drop in assets, the first since 2002, was due to sharp falls in stock market values. It would have been worse but for higher real estate values, which provided something of a safety net. Real estate assets, CHF1,315 billion in total, accounted for 43 percent of all household assets at the end of 2008, up from 39 percent the previous year.
Real estate prices climbed in 2008
The total value of households’ real estate rose by CHF73 billion in 2008.
The figures were released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) Friday 20 November, as part of the national financial accounts. This is the first year that assets include households’ real estate. The report notes that:
“financial assets held by households declined by CHF199 billion (10.4%) to CHF1,718 billion, while assets held in real estate increased by CHF73 billion (5.9%) to CHF1,315 billion. Liabilities rose by CHF15 billion (2.4%) to CHF629 billion. As a result of these developments, households’ net worth fell by CHF 141 billion (5.5%) to CHF2,403 billion.”
Mixed signals from banks, for US citizens in Switzerland
Updated 01:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss banks have become more cautious in their relations with US citizens in the wake of problems the country’s largest bank, UBS, ran into in 2008 with the IRS over unreported income on the part of some of its clients. GenevaLunch, in a survey of several Lake Geneva area banks, found that without exception the banks say they do not discriminate against US citizens, and they continue to welcome new accounts. Stories nevertheless abound in Switzerland of US citizens who received letters in early 2009 from their banks saying their accounts were being closed – but few of of these people will speak openly about such letters, in part because the IRS tax authority encourages citizens to report on others who are not “compliant” in filing taxes as well as listing all worldwide assets.
US Ambassador Beyer suggests UBS could turn over fewer names
A GenevaLunch reporting team this week spoke with several people to determine the extent to which the personal banking problem is real or a recent urban myth. The team talked to seven of the eight banks which returned its calls and to a number of US citizens resident in Switzerland, as well as with members of American Citizens Abroad (ACA). Some of those interviewed participated in an informal meeting in Geneva 12 November with the new US ambassador to Switzerland, Donald Beyer, where the banking problem was raised.
Beyer later in the day told WRS public radio in Geneva that some 9,000 Americans took advantage of an IRS amnesty for citizens overseas that ended 15 October. He suggested in the radio interview that the number of names UBS will turn over to the IRS is likely to be lower than the numbers – up to 50,000 – tossed about earlier in 2009 by international media.
(correction: price of gold) Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss National Bank has posted a positive half-year result of CHF5 billion before provisions, compared to a loss of CHF3.4b a year earlier. The SNB ended 2008 with a loss of CHF4.3b. The central bank’s legal obligations require it to set aside provisions that allow it to maintain currency reserves at a level necessary for monetary policy. For the first six months, CHF701.8 million will be allocated to provisions. The stabilization fund set up to bail out bank UBS had no impact on the results, the SNB points out.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government says it “deplores” the fact that it was obliged 15 July to inform Swiss banks and the heirs to accounts that belonged to former Zaire (now DR Congo) dictator Mobutu Sese Seko that nearly CHF8 million in Swiss banks must be unfrozen, meaning the money returns to the family. “The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs deplores this result, which marks the end of 12 years of freezing of the assets in which all conceivable solutions were attempted. Since 1997 the Confederation has gone to considerable lengths to bring this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.”
Washington, DC and Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - US federal district court judge Alan Gold, who is handling the case of the US Justice Department against Swiss bank UBS, has asked the American government to clarify its position, reports Swiss financial news agency AWP.
US federal authorities are seeking to freeze assets worth $93 million in the name of Ruth Madoff, saying they fear she could flee the country or that the assets might otherwise disappear. Reuters
Swiss National Bank, 2008
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Household wealth, measured in terms of assets, grew more slowly in 2007 than in 2006, Swiss National Bank figures released this week show. Net financial assets per capita amounted to roughly
CHF171,000.
