Apr 09 2009
How Wealthy Americans Made Money on Risky Scams and Hid It Offshore
Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, has been at the center of a growing scandal this year, for helping wealthy Americans hide their money from the IRS. Yesterday a Florida accountant was the first person arrested after UBS turned over the names of over 250 of its American clients to the IRS to avoid prosecution. The bank, which is the world’s largest manager of private wealth, has also admitted that from 2000 to 2007, it helped rich Americans avoid paying taxes by setting up sham offshore companies for them in third countries that are tax havens. The US government believes there are as many as 52,000 Americans with secret Swiss bank accounts. UBS recently ordered its staff not to travel abroad, fearing arrests by governments who are starting to crack down on tax evasion. Representatives at the recent G-20 summit in London, as one of their agreed-upon regulatory measures, promised to crack down collectively on tax havens. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a black-list of four countries that are called “non-cooperative tax havens,” and a “gray-list” of 38 other countries and territories that have committed to its tax standards but not full implemented them. This week the US and Swiss governments have agreed to revise a 1996 bi-lateral tax treaty to better exchange tax information based on the OECD tax codes.
GUEST: William Britain Catlin, author of Offshore: The Dark Side of the Global Economy
4 Responses to “How Wealthy Americans Made Money on Risky Scams and Hid It Offshore”
The IRS is unlawful, so why shouldnt someone be able to hide money from them?
Aren’t these governments chasing after the offshore accounts just about broke due to excessive spending and mismanagement?
[…] How Wealthy Americans Made Money on Risky Scams and Hid It OffshorePublished 9 Apr 2009, 9:50 am – Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, has been at the center of a growing scandal this year, for helping wealthy Americans hide their money from the IRS. […]
What’s new in this story is not that wealthy people are sheltering their money, what’s new is that we’re prosecuting them for tax evasion. This is a good thing. They have huge resources and can pay to find loopholes and numbered accounts, while the rest of us shoulder the burden of our fair share. Personally I don’t mind paying taxes, it’s part of the priviledge of living in the greatest nation on earth. I do mind when the government doesn’t use it wisely, which, unfortunately is frequently. Time to start putting some white collar criminals behind bars. Let’s become equal opportunity prosecutors!!