LAW OFFICES OF LINDA FRIEDMAN RAMIREZ P.A.

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Federal and Extradition Defense
Tampa Bay, Florida, United States
727-551-0751 * Since 1981 * Representing Foreign Nationals: State and Federal Criminal Defense, Regulatory Matters, and Administrative Proceedings. For additional information go to Linda Friedman Ramirez P.A. at: www.spanishlaw.com
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

OffShore Banking: Swiss Claims that Bank Secrecy is not Dead

Wall Street Jounal, November 9, 2009. " When UBS, the Swiss bank, agreed in August to hand over some 4,450 names of U.S. account holders as part of a tax settlement between the Swiss and U.S. authorities, it appeared to sound the death knell for banking secrecy in Switzerland – one of the main selling points for the country's financial institutions.

However, Swiss politicians and local bankers said that the agreement did not mean the U.S. authorities would be given information on all the offshore accounts held by Americans in Switzerland. Instead, information would only be supplied when tax authorities from another country had provable evidence of a tax fraud by an offshore account holder. Swiss foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, was instrumental in negotiating a settlement between the US and UBS."