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by Willy Gutman
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by Willy Gutman
Swiss banks run like finely tuned timepieces. Perhaps too finely tuned. Two of their darkest inner workings have now been exposed. One involves the accounts of European Jews who were later exterminated by the Nazis. The other is the banks' eagerness to filch tons of gold purloined by Germany and deposited in their vaults during the war.
Most of the booty was never returned. For 55 years, high on chocolate and shameless neutrality, Switzerland frustrated investigations aiming at baring its dalliance with the Nazis. It also stubbornly hindered efforts by Holocaust survivors to locate dormant bank accounts. Faced with a barrage of bad publicity, Switzerland is now stripping to its unmentionables.
A recent report reveals that Switzerland protected vast assets from Nazi Germany and returned hundreds of millions of dollars to German owners in defiance of war compensation agreements with Washington. Drafted by a five-nation panel of historians, the 25-volume document offers dramatic evidence that Swiss authorities evaded the agreement to liquidate German assets. It also belies the long-cherished image of Switzerland as a tiny, halcyon nation that valiantly withstood Nazi pressure.
Under the 1946 Washington Accord, Switzerland had agreed to sell German assets and turn the money to the Allies so it could be used to compensate war victims. At the time, Swiss authorities estimated that these assets --- ranging from multinational corporations to jewelry and personal bank accounts --- were worth about $225 million. The report concludes that the real amount exceeds $450 million. Some estimates place that amount at closer to $6 billion.
The holdings "remained untouched thanks to the obdurate and stalling Swiss negotiating tactics, and were secretly returned to their German owners."
The report also details how Swiss banks "obstructed the return of securities seized from Jews and inhabitants of the occupied countries," and how they blocked attempts by heirs of Holocaust victims to recover their savings.
Claims filed in the 1990s by heirs and Jewish organizations resulted in a US-court-supervised $1.25 billion settlement --- a fraction of the amount deposited and legitimately owed.
The report also accuses the Swiss government of selling weapons to the Nazis and accepting about 300 pounds of gold taken from Holocaust victims in concentration camps --- including gold teeth.
Switzerland has a long history of selectively protecting its "secret" bank accounts. Drug barons, organized crime bosses and international terrorist groups have been granted "most-favored" status by Swiss banks. In a Byzantine game of shifting loyalties and deals gone sour --- from the sale of heroin and weapons to the adulteration of gold, to contract assassinations, Swiss banks artfully coddle their patrons, protecting huge deposits and assisting in the transfer and laundering of vast sums between banks in Europe, the US, Central America and the Caribbean.
What the report fails to say, even by inference, is that obfuscation and sleight of hand remain the stock-in-trade of an unapologetic Swiss banking system. Because Swiss banks continue to serve a motley and incestuous global clientele, no one --- the latest revelations notwithstanding --- will ever single out Switzerland as being awash in filthy money. When it comes to money and politics, impunity and immunity weave a mighty fine set of clothes for naked emperors. Don't be surprised if the Enron scandal and the disappearance of billions of dollars from Serbia's coffers tie Kenneth Lay and Slobodan Milosovic to separate but parallel conduits into the darkest recesses of Switzerland's banking system.
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