A May 20, 2014 report by the Reuters news agency tells us that Credit Suisse, Switzerland\u2019s second largest bank, has been fined $2.5 billion by U.S. regulators.\u00a0 The bank was charged with helping wealthy Americans conceal major cash assets, making it possible for them to evade U.S. \u00a0federal and state income taxes.<\/p>\n
In a related story, the Associated Press reports that, \u201cThe case is part of an Obama administration crackdown on offshore banks believed to be helping U.S. clients hide assets. \u00a0Justice Department officials said their investigations into secret bank accounts held by Americans in Switzerland and other countries likely will bring forth additional resolutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prosecution of Credit\u00a0Suisse\u00a0came after prolonged criticism that the Obama administration has not been aggressive enough in its pursuit of wrongdoing in the banking industry.\u00a0 According to the AP, \u201cA report from the Senate subcommittee that investigated Credit\u00a0Suisse\u00a0accused (Eric Holder\u2019s) Justice Department of (surprise, surprise) lax enforcement and faulted the government for gleaning only 238 names of U.S. citizens with secret accounts at Credit\u00a0Suisse, or just 1 percent of the estimated total.\u201d \u00a0The Senate subcommittee was able to find more than 22,000 U.S. clients\u00a0with Credit Suisse accounts totaling\u00a0some $10-12 billion.<\/p>\n
The subcommittee report charged that Credit Suisse had sent bankers to recruit American clients at golf tournaments and other events.\u00a0 They encouraged potential clients to travel to Switzerland where they were assisted in hiding assets.\u00a0 The report disclosed that, in one instance, a Credit Suisse banker passed bank statements to a U.S. client hidden in the pages of a Sports Illustrated<\/i> magazine during a breakfast meeting.\u00a0 In some instances, Credit Suisse bankers helped wealthy U.S. depositors withdraw funds from their Swiss accounts by either providing hand-delivered cash in the United States, or through Credit Suisse bank accounts in the U.S.<\/p>\n
The $2.5 billion fine will be divided between the U.S. Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Reserve, and the New York State Department of Financial Services.\u00a0 Just under $200 million has already been paid to the Securities and Exchange Commission.\u00a0 In order to appease investors, the bank will begin paying out roughly half its profits to shareholders until its profitability reaches a pre-established price\/earnings ratio.<\/p>\n
However, the Credit Suisse settlement calls into question a 2009 \u201cdeferred prosecution agreement\u201d between the U.S. Department of Justice and Switzerland\u2019s largest bank, the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS).\u00a0 In 2009, following a lengthy investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, UBS agreed to pay just $780 million in fines and to turn over the names of thousands of customers suspected of evading U.S. taxes.<\/p>\n
So why the disparity in fines between the two largest Swiss banks, UBS and Credit Suisse?<\/p>\n
In July 2008, Barack Obama <\/b>boasted of a contributor base totaling some 1.5 million people, with one-fourth of his $265 million coming from those contributing $2,000, or more.\u00a0 However, by October 2008, just five months later and just days before the General Election, the campaign reported that their contributor base has grown from 1.5 million to 2.5 million, and that the total amount raised approached $600 million. \u00a0So who were all those people, and where did all that money come from?<\/p>\n
In a July 25, 2008, column we pointed out that UBS Americas, headed by Robert Wolf\u2026 along with George Soros, one of Obama\u2019s top two money men\u2026 had been accused of highly unethical and illegal banking practices in six months of hearings by the Senate subcommittee.\u00a0 According to an article in The Nation<\/i>, UBS Americas had advised wealthy Americans, including many of our worst villains, how to shelter funds from the IRS, as well as from prosecutors, creditors, disgruntled business associates, family members, and each other.<\/p>\n
In a Statement of Fact in the criminal trial of former UBS executive Bradley Birkenfeld, it was learned that UBS took extraordinary steps to help American clients manage their Swiss accounts without alerting federal authorities.\u00a0\u00a0 For example, UBS advised American clients to avoid detection by using Swiss credit cards to withdraw funds, to destroy all existing off-shore banking records, and to misrepresent the receipt of funds from their Swiss accounts as loans<\/i> from the Swiss bank.\u00a0 According to The Nation, <\/i>UBS established an elaborate training program which taught bank employees how to avoid surveillance by U.S. authorities, how to falsify visas, how to encrypt communications, and how to secretly move money into and out of the country\u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n
It was the perfect instrument for funneling illegal campaign contributions into the coffers of an unscrupulous American politician.\u00a0 Putting two and two together, I suggested that a very wealthy individual, such as George Soros, wishing to influence the outcome of an American presidential election, could transfer unlimited sums of money through this device.\u00a0 A U.S. recipient, such as the Obama campaign, could receive tens of thousands of individual contributions via Swiss credit card transfers, with the identities of bogus contributors \u201cborrowed\u201d from their extensive list of $10 and $20 U.S. contributors and entered onto FEC reports by teams of paid staffers working in a \u201cboiler room\u201d setting.\u00a0 The owners of the Swiss accounts would receive periodic statements indicating debits of varying amounts, up to $2,300 each, and offsetting credits funded by the wealthy, but unnamed, \u201cinternational financier.\u201d<\/p>\n
For most of the super wealthy, especially those attempting to hide income and assets from U.S. authorities, an unexplained debit and credit of $2,300, or less, would not even raise an eyebrow.\u00a0 It would look to the depositor as if the bank had made a debit error which had been immediately corrected with a credit of like amount.\u00a0 However, in this instance, the Swiss bank account would actually have been debited, money transferred to the U.S. recipient, and funds replaced by person or persons unknown.\u00a0 The scheme would represent money-laundering of the first order.\u00a0 So who would ever know the source of such contributions?\u00a0 No one.<\/p>\n
In response to my July 25 column, and at my suggestion, Newsmax<\/i> sent a team of researchers to the Federal Election Commission to take a closer look at Obama\u2019s FEC reports.\u00a0 In a follow-up October 20 article by Kenneth Timmerman, Newsmax<\/i> provided details from FEC records that gave substantial weight to my theory.\u00a0 In studying Obama\u2019s FEC filings, Newsmax<\/i> found more than 2,000 donors who had given substantially more than their $4,600 limit ($2,300 in the primaries and $2,300 in the General Election).<\/p>\n
But these were relatively minor infractions compared to 66,383 highly suspicious contributions that were, oddly enough, not rounded to even dollar amounts. \u00a0For example, Newsmax<\/i> reported that John Atkinson, an insurance agent in Burr Ridge, Illinois, gave a total of $8,724.26, more than double his legal limit.\u00a0 He gave in odd amounts such as $188.67, $1,542.06, $876.09, $388.67, $282.20, $195.66, $118.15, and one of $2,300. \u00a0A self-employed caregiver from Los Angeles made 36 separate contributions totaling $7,051.12, of which thirteen were later refunded.\u00a0 However, in an odd coincidence, those 13 refunds, in amounts such as $233.88 and $201.44, came to an even $2,300, the maximum amount allowable in any one election.<\/p>\n
One contributor interviewed by Newsmax<\/i>, Ronald J. Sharpe, Jr., a retired schoolteacher from Rockledge, Florida, was reported to have given $13,800\u2026 $9,200 over his limit.\u00a0 However, when interviewed by Newsmax<\/i>, Mr. Sharpe did not remember giving that much money to Obama, nor had anyone from the Obama campaign ever contacted him about a refund.<\/p>\n
Lest anyone suggest that those 66,383 donors either emptied their piggy banks or emptied their pockets and purses periodically and just sent it all to Obama, pennies and all, I think it is far more reasonable to assume that those contributions were the proceeds of foreign currency conversions, smuggled into the country in foreign credit card transactions, converted to U.S. dollars, and deposited in Obama\u2019s campaign coffers.\u00a0 Of course, when your money is coming in large chunks from illegal offshore accounts and laundered though a Swiss bank in Zurich, it takes a bit of creativity to put authentic-sounding names on all of it for the quarterly FEC reports.\u00a0 But the Obama campaign had a huge source of such data: the names, addresses, and occupations of tens of thousands of $10 and $20 U.S. Kool-Ade drinkers.<\/p>\n
According to Newsmax<\/i>, the Obama campaign finance reports contained some 370,500 unique names\u2026 a far cry from the 2.5 million contributors claimed by the campaign.\u00a0 Of course, a great many of those 2.5 million contributors were illegal Muslim \u201cconduits\u201d who were given money by their local imams with the understanding that they would use it to help elect Obama\u2026 a crime for which Eric Holder is now prosecuting a major Obama critic, author Dinesh D\u2019Souza. The principal difference being that, instead of creating tens of thousands of illegal conduits, as the Muslim clerics clearly did, D\u2019Souza reimbursed only three people in a New York senate race.<\/p>\n
So what happened to Robert Wolf, Obama\u2019s most important friend in the international banking industry?\u00a0 Was he fired, tried and imprisoned?\u00a0 No, Wolf was named to UBS\u2019s Group Executive Board and promoted to President and COO of the UBS Investment Bank<\/a>.\u00a0 From 2009-11, Wolf served on Obama\u2019s Homeland Security<\/a> Advisory Council, in 2011 he became a member of Obama\u2019s Council on Jobs & Competitiveness, and in 2012 he was appointed to the President\u2019s Export Council.<\/p>\n In response to the Credit Suisse prosecution, Attorney General Eric Holder has said that no bank \u00a0is immune from criminal prosecution.\u00a0 But it\u2019s clear that in his world, and in Obama\u2019s world, the severity of punishment depends very much on who you are and who you know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A May 20, 2014 report by the Reuters news agency tells us that Credit Suisse, Switzerland\u2019s second largest bank, has been fined $2.5 billion by U.S. regulators.\u00a0 The bank was charged with helping wealthy Americans conceal major cash assets, making … Continue reading