Swiss party wants to punish U.S. for UBS probe

Swiss party wants to punish U.S. for UBS probe


Swiss party wants to punish U.S. for UBS probe

Sat Feb 21, 2009 9:53am EST


ZURICH, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The right-wing Swiss People's
Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the
United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country's biggest
bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy.

The populist SVP, the country's biggest party, said
Switzerland should not take in any detainees from the U.S.
prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which
the Swiss government said last month it could consider to help
shut the camp down.

Switzerland should also reconsider its policy of
representing the United States in countries where it has no
diplomatic presence, the parliamentary SVP said in a statement.

The SVP said gold stored by the Swiss National Bank in the
United States should be repatriated and Switzerland should ban
the sale of U.S. funds in the country to protect Swiss investors
after the failure of U.S. regulators.

The SVP has one minister in the seven-member Swiss
government which is made up of the biggest four parties, but its
populist policies have shaken up usually consensual Swiss
politics.

The comments came after UBS agreed on Wednesday to pay a
fine of $780 million and to disclose about 250 names of U.S.
clients it said had committed tax fraud to settle U.S. criminal
charges that it had helped rich Americans dodge taxes.

U.S. tax authorities said on Thursday they were still
pursuing a civil case against UBS seeking access to thousands
more names of U.S. citizens it says are hiding about $14.8
billion in assets in secret Swiss bank accounts. [ID:nN19534438]

The SVP also said it would call for an urgent debate in
parliament on ways to protect Swiss banking secrecy from
"further foreign blackmail".
(Reporting by Emma Thomasson)

I'm siding with the conservative Swiss on this.

The IRS should be declared a terrorist organization. They've ruined more lives than Al Quada. And Obama's govt is no different -- terrorists.

I say fuck the swiss and fuck the IRS:drunken:

The USG and IRS have no business screwing with the Swiss banking system.