This is outright garbage.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/09...me-to-confess/
"In June 2008, UBS's Bradley Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to helping a U.S. client evade his tax liability, and the case provided information on the bank's internal practices to American officials. In February of this year, UBS admitted that it had violated U.S. securities law and had helped its American clients hide their income from tax authorities. It agreed to pay $780 million in penalties and unpaid taxes in exchange for a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice. Simultaneously, the IRS and Justice pursued a related civil case (known as the John Doe summons) concerning the names of up to 52,000 account holders with the Swiss bank.
In August, UBS reached a settlement agreement regarding that case and, as part of the deal, agreed to turn over the names of approximately 4,450 UBS account holders suspected of using their Swiss accounts to evade taxes. According to the IRS, these accounts held more than $18 billion at one point. UBS will give the names to Swiss tax officials, who will then determine whether to turn them over to U.S. tax authorities. The agreement, which contains details regarding how the Swiss government will make its determinations, remains sealed for now. The IRS has said that it will unseal the document by Nov. 17."
Not only were many rich people using UBS to avoid paying taxes by setting up secret accounts, but UBS broke our laws as well. Just because they built an industry that (for decades) relied on tax cheats doesn't mean they don't have to follow our laws.
And I don't know what you're talking about when it comes to the lazy US prosecutors not doing their job. It seems like they did a great job in this case and it seems like standard procedure for taking down a criminal enterprise. They found a guy who was breaking the law for an organization. They busted his ass and flipped him. He told them all the crooked shit they do. They used it against UBS, who admitted they violated our laws and paid fines. They then cooperated and gave up information on other motherfuckers with secret accounts. Like the article says, it ain't hard to comply with the law. If you did, the accounts would not be secret and it wouldn't matter that information regarding those accounts were uncovered in the investigation.
The only difference between this and taking down a drug cell is that sophisticated rich people are the ones getting away with the crime. "Reasonable, narrowly-tailored requests to the Swiss citing the basis for release of finite records on individual suspected tax cheats." What a joke. I'm sure this has been done countless times with the Swiss response being, "Fuck off. We're not giving you a damn thing."
I do not understand your thought process. Sometimes I can follow it. In this instance, I don't know what the hell you're thinking.
TM
