Rich Americans Sue UBS To Keep Names Secret In Tax-Evasion Investigation

CNBC:

UBS was sued on Tuesday in a Swiss federal court by wealthy American clients seeking to prevent the disclosure of their identities as part of a tax-evasion investigation by the United States Justice Department.

Read the whole story: CNBC

Comments

[DarwinAtWork]

07:24 PM on 02/28/2009

Can we add some charges like, conspiracy to commit a crime? Or racketeering? Or obstruction?

[spinns17]

05:35 PM on 02/26/2009

and put there faces on the net ,news, and papers .

[Ozarks]

04:25 PM on 02/26/2009

Court documents are not a banking secret. Whoever sues UBS will be revealed!

[Lady Rose]

03:32 PM on 02/26/2009

I can't wait to see the list of names and hope each and every one gets what they deserve - paying back all back taxes with interest (regardless of which political party they belong too)

[fredgladys]

03:01 PM on 03/01/2009

It would also be interesting to see how many of them have wrapped themselves in the flag as good patriotic citizens.

[sposton]

03:11 PM on 02/26/2009

Remember most of these people belong to the 1% of the populations, the same class that has offshored our jobs. But that is not enough; they also need to cheat on taxes the very government that protects them and give them benefits no other class in this country enjoys. I say, offshore these bastards to Afghanistan or some other such place where they'd have no taxes to pay.

[2008CaliforniaFan]

03:10 PM on 02/26/2009

I would sure ha te to be a Business owner or a corporation CEO who is laying off his workers.... and have an account with UBS...?

[Cogs]

02:56 PM on 02/26/2009

This going to be hard to explain and harder to defend. These devils have to be worried that they will be exposed as cheats and liars.

[Realityism]

02:54 PM on 02/26/2009

On the one hand, U.S. residents have no right to evade income taxes using foreign intermediaries.

On the other hand, foreign intermediaries that have contractual obligations to the anonymity of their clients have no right to release that information, and the U.S. government has no right to make them do so.

This is a sticky situation.

[Bugweed]

05:12 PM on 02/26/2009

What's this balderdash about rights? It is a federal crime to evade US income taxes, and to aid in the evasion of such. Any individual that aids in the commission of a crime, including a corporation, one that I might add has a huge legal presence in this country, cannot hide behind some quaint notion of the "obligation of swiss contracts" to further that crime. If memory serves me correctly US citizens are not entitled to hold numbered anonymous accounts for the purpose of evading taxes.

[treetracker]

02:59 PM on 02/27/2009

This is why UBS exec won't come to the US now - they are afraid they will be arrested for their role in perpetrating the crimes.

[joshu]

02:15 PM on 02/26/2009

Oh goody. I wonder how many republican pro tax cut for the rich shills will be on that list.

Guessing Ann Coulter is probably on there, probably Phil Graham no doubt. Bill O'reilly....Limbaugh

Must be sweet to have these pretended patriots ousted. I bet the whole bunch of them never contribute in anything other than vitriol to America. Wonder what their heartland fans will think...

[-0013]

02:27 PM on 02/26/2009

As much as I'm against them releasing this list so people like you can't start egging these people's homes, I could handle it being released only so the left could see that list also has a fair amount of Dem's on it as well. I'm guessing a 50% / 50% split.

[Montanagramma]

04:33 PM on 02/26/2009

If that is the case, so be it. Tax cheats are tax cheats, and they are robbing our country. Let them all be found out! Dem or Repub makes no difference!

[Hdaryl01]

02:32 PM on 02/26/2009

What are you going to do and say when:

Al Gore
John Kerry
John Edwards
Ted kennedy
Carolyn Kennedy
Patrick Kennedy
John Corzine
Barney Frank
Chris Dodd
Jay Rockefeller
Robert Byrd
Etc. Etc. Etc.

I just want you to be prepared for some discomfort.....................are you?

[PenelopeS]

03:24 PM on 02/26/2009

I am guessing that the people who have brought the suit are probably U.S. citizens living full-time in Switzerland, paying Swiss taxes and wondering why the hell should they pay U.S. taxes on income not earned in the U.S. A lot of people have U.S. passport without ever availing themselves of any goods or services in the U.S.

This might, in fact, be a useful suit for all U.S. expats who fail to see why they should pay taxes in the U.S. - in addition to the taxes they pay to the country they live in. Only the U.S. demands that expats file and pay if their revenue/assets exceed a certain amount.

[Carolab]

07:53 PM on 02/26/2009

Oh, really? Look at the NNDB mapper for Phil Gramm and UBS. WHOSE names do you see?

http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=24335

[Sepulchre]

01:44 PM on 02/26/2009

They make me ill.

[OKSunny]

01:17 PM on 02/26/2009

Well, this is what happens when you give the rich tax cuts-----they hoard the money offshore instead of putting it back into the economy, which isn't that the theory of trickle down economics????

[PenelopeS]

01:13 PM on 02/26/2009

The United States is the only country in the world that obliges citizens who are not actually residents of the United States to pay income tax.

While I don't have any particular sympathy for very rich people, I don't think the U.S. government should be intervening in Swiss internal matters - I find this arrogant and not that different from the previous administration's lack of respect for international laws.

[Hdaryl01]

01:48 PM on 02/26/2009

Hear! Hear! Thank you!

I've been trying single handedly to communicate the unjustness of the US Federal Income Tax system to the folks on this blog, who are not necessarily inclined to listen to, think about, or accept its discriminatory realities. Doing so would deflate some of their outrage I guess. And, it's much more comfortable to be uninformed, deluded, and outraged, than it is to be informed, objective, and thoughtful.

And, you are absolutely correct. The US is the only country in the world that taxes its citizens ON WORLDWIDE INCOME from ANY source, regardless of where the citizen lives.

It is equally difficult for many folks to understand that Swiss bank accounts used by citizens of every other country on the planet except citizens of the US are no big deal, completely legal, and constitutes business as usual for multiple centuries. Only US citizens are subject to onerous reporting requirements on IRS forms for money going out, and subject to taxation reporting and payment on earnings.

I also agree that the US is inappropriately intervening in the internal affairs of Switzerland. Many on this blog, although outrage about US imperialism, fail to draw the analogy that the current action is tantamount to legal imperialism....

[WongChin]

01:11 PM on 02/26/2009

Wait a minute: How did USB's American customers discover one another to be able to file a joint suit? If I understand it, their names are supposed to be secret, so secret that US intelligence agencies cannot locate them without the help of USB. Could it be that USB gathered its American customers to sue it?

I can't imagine it any other way.

[Gatormouth]

12:28 PM on 02/26/2009

UBS: that's the Swiss banking company Phill Gramm shilled for, isn't it?The Sith Lord of Deregulation?

Tax evasion may not be covered under Swiss Banking law, but in the U.S. we really care! As one of Phil Gramm's "whiners", I wonder, is the reason the American tax cheats found in the investigation don't want their names released a sense of shame? Nah. Post their names. I want to see who some of these upstanding citizens are. This is all encouraging me to develop some real old fashioned Republican values, circa 1789.

[Whatashame]

03:05 PM on 02/26/2009

Phil Gramm name is all over this. UBS(Union Bank of Switzerland) wasn't Gramm part of the company? I smell a FISH.

[Gatormouth]

12:58 AM on 02/27/2009

OH, YEAH: Stench even! You can google a tub of info on Gramm with just about every deregulation FUBAR since Lincoln Savings and loan, thru Enron and into the Oil speculation crisis.

example:

Phil Gramm's UBS Problem
If the Texas senator and McCain adviser was supposed to keep the Swiss bank out of trouble, he's made a mess of it.
By Daniel GrossPosted Monday, July 7, 2008, at 5:58 PM ET

Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm has emerged as the key behind-the-scenes economics/Wall Street guy for John McCain and is being touted as the treasury secretary in waiting. Since 2002, Gramm has been an executive with the U.S. operations of UBS, the giant Swiss Bank. An unintentionally hilarious interview with Gramm on the Wall Street Journal editorial page last week asserted that Gramm has "been a key instigator of some of the biggest money-making UBS deals of recent years."

http://www.slate.com/id/2194933/

[solarian]

12:25 PM on 02/26/2009

the tax cheats are afraid they will all go to jail ha ha

[-0013]

02:29 PM on 02/26/2009

Why? Geitner is still free and so is Daschle.

[medici]

03:36 PM on 02/26/2009

And your point??