New York Times reported yesterday here that the Swiss are grousing about the the German Governments purchase and potential use of "stolen" Swiss bank data to proceed against German persons who have cheated on their taxes. To the extent that those German persons did cheat, of course, they were enabled by the Swiss bankers. The Swiss have no problem with enabling crime in other countries, but take offense when those other countries enable crimes in Switzerland (specifically by paying for "stolen" Swiss bank data).
At any rate, the article reports that some influential person asserted that “If Germany buys stolen bank data, we will work for a change in the law so that the complete Swiss accounts of German people holding public office have to be disclosed.” The article reports that, although influential, it may be unlikely that such a proposal would be approved by the legislature. Still, it is symptomatic of the angst that the Swiss have.
By the way, I personally do not think it would be a bad result to have the Swiss disclose the bank data of all known officials of other countries. That would be a great start.
I guess the real lesson is that all this publicity cannot help but put the idea in the heads of a lot of Swiss and other tax haven bank personnel who feel underappreciated and underpaid that they too can become rich. If so, the time is now, because I suspect that a host of considerations will in the relatively near future make the Swiss banking system more transparent in terms of other countries getting information on tax cheats. Don't wait, guys (including gals), the oppotunity is now and may not last forever. (I wonder if I am enabling those bank minions simply by noting this lucrative opportunity (I suspect that they already know and some are setting their plans); perhaps the Swiss will threaten to disclose my Swiss bank account (I hope they do, I would like to find some money I am not aware of.)
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