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Maintaining a Swiss bank account isn’t illegal and doesn’t necessarily indicate that the account holder is doing anything wrong. Still, the immense quantities of money being held offshore by individuals and government entities from the Caribbean and South Americas, which all struggle with inequality, are now raising plenty of questions in those countries, also from their people in the diaspora.
Maybe we should ask if this is an ALBA requirement for the leaders to stash funds in secret offshore bank accounts, or is it simply a copycat reflex by leaders, most of whom are old Marxist buddies.
We must keep in mind that HSBC Switzerland is just one bank, which leads to the question: What other bank accounts of the scum dictatorships and want to be dictatorships are there in Switzerland? Which other banks are they using? It is often talked about how some of our Caribbean scum bank in Panama, using numbered accounts, bearer bonds and bearer shares.
What we as Vincentians want to know is who are the Vincentians who established and owned 16 bank accounts at HSBC in Switzerland amounting to US$48.7 million.
In the UK, the producers of the BBC programme Panorama may have all the answers at their fingertips. They are making a programme exposing UK taxpayers that had accounts at HSBC in Switzerland. They have the full list for every country and therefore details of all account holders, including SVG. I will be submitting a list of names and asking them if any of those names on my list appear on their data file of Swiss HSBC accounts. I am told I will get a simple yes or no without a definite person to point a finger at. That’s OK initially, because I am reliably told finding out the actual name/s will be eventually forthcoming from the US government. But fear not, sooner or later I will furnish you with those facts, if we do not find out from another source prior to my efforts. I am busy formulating an information-for-information deal that may just work in our favour.
Peter Binose
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Anxious to see what you turn up and how they are tied back to Vincentians since the info in the Swissleaks states that 0 percent had Vincentian passports or nationality. We await!!!!
Peter, according to the ICIJ report (www.ijic.org): “16 clients are associated with St. Vincent. 0% have a Saint Vincentian passport or nationality.”
So it seems that 16 people are using the good name of our beloved homeland as a “ship of convenience,” just as many do in the real shipping world.
Of the 16 clients linked to St. Vincent, none of them hold passports or Vincentian nationality according to the information I saw. So while the clients with the money in the Swiss Banks are somehow linked to St. Vincent, they are probably not Vincentian.
It would probably be invested there via a local offshore bank.
So as morehs says, we will wait and see.
Switzerland has always been the jurisdiction benefiting most from financial secrecy.
The accounts could well belong to SVG government departments, such as the ship registration department, PetroCarib, or private trusts, Vincentian companies, etc, etc. Maybe even money hidden by William Wise, in trust accounts with nominees.
We still need to know who they are, or what they are, because even if they are government owned, perhaps not recorded and no oversight or auditing taking place. Who are the signatories and who is capable of dipping in the honey-pot? who is able to make withdrawals?
These type of accounts are commonly used as a hiding place or a shield against something. They don’t even pay interest, they charge for looking after their money.
The Swiss Tax haven, offers several types of ‘service’:-
a) bank secrecy is offered by Switzerland, where bankers promise to take their client’s secrets to the grave.
b) jurisdiction permitting the creation of trusts, corporations, foundations etc. where the ownership and purpose of accounts are kept secret. Here the real owner will be hidden behind nominees i.e. professional agents who act as a front for the real owners.
For wealthy private individuals, usually with something to hide, a Swiss tax haven will come in useful as they can salt away money from prying eyes.
Tax havens don’t normally tax interest on the bank accounts of non-residents leaving the account holders with the decision of whether or not to declare the gross amount of interest earned to their own tax authorities. And as the Swiss refuse to respond to requests for information from foreign tax authorities, this again encourages individuals from overseas to park large amounts of assets ‘offshore’.