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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

The problem is, we didn't figure out how to catch them. We weren't successful in locating and examining specific transactions on our own to determine who here was hiding money abroad and then send reasonable, narrowly-tailored requests to the Swiss citing the basis for release of finite records on individual suspected tax cheats. Instead, we took the lazy approach and said "Give us all records on all Americans with X amount of dollars in your banks, or who utilized the services of X division of UBS' private banking group." Doing it that way, we created a showdown with the Swiss, whose economy in no small part depends on the attractiveness of their protective banking secrecy laws.

I'd have no issue with discrete requests made for records, and would expect Swiss compliance. But we didn't do that. Being the arrogant, lazy nation we are, we demanded they open volumes of books for us to allow the law enforcement agents of this country who hadn't done their job to go on a fishing expedition. Judges don't allow that sort of broad net discovery in criminal or civil actions here and the Swiss had every right to tell us to fuck off there. It's their sovereign territory, their bank, and the possibility of a bad press imperiling an important source of revenue to their country. That we don't like it, or think they protect criminals, is irrelevant. We don't make their laws.

This is such a mischaracterization of the entire episode that it's hard to know where to start. So I won't. TM is right. Your emotional commitment to tax cheats is peculiar.