Wikileaks: Switzerland: A parasite feeding on developing world?

[SealLion]

This article must have past my eyes from awhile back. It's dated from last month on the 19th.

check it out, though:


By Lord Aikins Adusei

Various categories of persons including Popes, presidents, prime ministers, corrupt dictators, wealthy business men, and drug dealers have all used and benefited from the banking secrecy laws of Switzerland. As a result her economy has been described as an underground economy, a deposit box for dirty money and a "dirt-driven economy"............Swiss banks are reputed to be holding an estimated 35% of the world's private and institutional funds (or 3 trillion Swiss francs)".




that;s alot of coin, man.
Alot!!

35 %??!!


Here's the link:



Switzerland: A parasite feeding on developing world? - Wikileaks (http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Switzerland:_A_parasite_feeding_on_developing_worl d%3F)


It's a bit of a lengthier read, but a good one I believe.

[slikrapid]

for some reason the redirection didn't work, this did for me:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Switzerland:_A_parasite_feeding_on_developing_worl d%3F

a lot of hard accusations, but let me ask this: does a bank have the right to ask you where you got the money you want to deposit with them? i think not - imagine you have to prove everything you want to deposit (it can be mentioned that if you can't your actions can be viewed as a money laundering attempt)

now that doesn't mean that a bank should not cooperate with an investigation - this is a sensitive area for privacy protection

also, it seems to me that many countries cannot (optimistic viewpoint) handle criminal within their borders and if money slips over the border its convenient to blame it on the banks that receive it

another view can be to consider the 'fact' that a single country holds such amount of money in their bank vaults/system - i bet many mouths start watering to the thought of getting a piece of it (especially if these banks are independent from the world bank)

for the capitalistic system to work, there has to be those that are on a low level of the economy chain in order for those on the top to accumulate their wealth (simplified view) - therefore highly developed countries have it in their interest to exploit the third world countries - if there was no such difference between countries, there wouldn't have been significant profit increase for the top corporations - which basically own the top politicians - therefore their 'care' for the underdeveloped world is hypocritical and false

[SealLion]

no, I don't believe that the banks have the priviliage or the right to ask the depositer where they got the money from. But, suppose that after so many investigations into the bank's activities, it could be proven that the bank is 'quiet' on the issue of where the money came from and who it actually belongs to.
In this example, suppose that it belonged to some dictator who was squandering his country's money all for himself.
The bank had numerous clients of such persons. Not just one, but more than a few and most of the money was taken from the vaults of various country's and held in security by the depositor.

After some investigations into these things by an independant party, I think that the bank would have to make some kind of amends and end it's co-operation and silence with it's clients and show to a governing agency that the money was taken from some 3rd world country and used by what-ever dictator for his personal use when that money was supposed to be used within that 3rd world country.

one other thing. This here:


....it seems to me that many countries cannot (optimistic viewpoint) handle criminal within their borders and if money slips over the border its convenient to blame it on the banks that receive it

who would be most appropriate to blame, then??

maybe the goverment of that country, if that's what you were suggesting at.
If so, how and why the government??
Unless someone inside the government was collaborating with the party of persons that was stashing the money in the bank..

[slikrapid]

After some investigations into these things by an independant party, I think that the bank would have to make some kind of amends and end it's co-operation and silence with it's clients

well, like said before - its a sensitive matter and since this is a foreign bank maybe it shouldn't even bother to get involved with these investigations as they can also be staged and so on - i'm not sure what is a reasonable solution in such cases



who would be most appropriate to blame, then??
maybe the goverment of that country, if that's what you were suggesting at.
If so, how and why the government??
Unless someone inside the government was collaborating with the party of persons that was stashing the money in the bank..

i was pointing out that the government's intentional (or not) incompetence in avoiding these money leaks through appropriate legislation (for example transparent transactions, taxes and so on) or the company's (that may have leaks) lack of similar precautions shouldn't be blamed on an indirectly involved 3rd party (the banks) unless there was provable 'conspiracy'

imagine having a business relationship with some company that pays you for some service - later on the company gets shut down/busted for fraud and the investigators blame you (3rd party) for taking the money whereas the real culprit is that fraudulent company (maybe with government illegal support/connections as accomplices)