seriously what is America s obsesson with swiss bank accounts? any dentist or doctor or average moron could have opened one...not any more though casue the swiss no longer want american clients. its too much of a head ache for them and not worth the hassle of prying IRS robots demanding to sift through private documents of banks located in a soveriegn nation
One day a week for the last 18 months I have been serving on a Federal Grand Jury. In one case, we heard testimony from a witness whose boss had a Swiss bank account and lots of money on an island in the Caribbean. Before long, the boss started to pay this employee in cash, and at certain times asked the employee to carry cash into the US (they traveled abroad frequently); there are limits on how much cash one is allowed to personally carry into the US and the employee was asked to do this specifically to circumvent the law because his boss was already at the limit. The employee did so repeatedly. Eventually, the boss was nabbed by the Feds and the case came before my Grand Jury. The employee testified that he had “no idea” “no clue” that his boss was engaged in anything underhanded until the Feds nabbed him.
“Oh really?” I said during questioning, “Have you ever had any employer pay you in cash before?”
“No.”
“Didn’t you think that was the least bit strange?”
“Unusual, yes, but not necessarily illegal or criminal.”
“When your employer began to ask you to carry cash into the country because he was at the cash limit himself didn’t you think that was strange?”
“Well, no. He was my boss and I was just doing as I was told.”
“But you knew when he asked you to carry the cash that he was doing it specifically to circumvent the law restricting cash into the country, isn’t that correct?”
“Well, yes, I guess so.”
“In other words you did, in fact, know that you and your employer were deliberately violating the law, isn’t that right?”
“Well, when you put it that way, yes, I guess so.”
“Tell me, before you went to work for this gentleman, did you have a Swiss bank account yourself?”
“No.”
“Did you personally know anyone with a Swiss bank account?”
“No.”
“I think I’m safe in observing that most people in the United States, and most of us in this room (about 30 people) have only heard of Swiss bank accounts through television, movies, news reports, etc. And those Swiss accounts are almost always being used in connection with some sort of criminal activity such as hiding money, laundering money, avoiding taxes, or otherwise illegally transferring money. Would you say that’s a fair statement?”
“Um, well, yes, I guess so.”
“And so, when you helped your boss transfer large sums of money to several Swiss bank accounts over a period of many months it never once occurred to you that something inappropriate might be going on?”
“Um… um… Can I take a break and consult with my attorney?”
“Don’t bother… I have nothing further.”
At the end of his testimony the Assistant US Attorney comes over to me smiling and says, “You should have been a prosecutor!”
