Looks like lawyers that specialize in financial crime are going to be busy in Switzerland (and if the Justice Department prevails, they will be busy here too). Apparently a dozen or so possible tax evaders are suing UBS and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority for violating Swiss secrecy laws. UBS was supposed to turn over about 250 names and our Justice Department suspects around 52,000 more Americans of evading payment of taxes.
With our banks in crisis, I can understand wanting money (that is, if you have any) in a stable bank, but why should anyone be permitted NOT to pay their taxes just because they have enough cash to send offshore? Wasn't it Leona Helmsley that mumbled something about "only the little people pay taxes" as if the rich had some special privilege unavailable to lower castes? Her big mistake was thinking that people with meager funds are "little", which is pretty funny when you think about it. Great wealth is a source of great obligation, it does not make you "big" as she apparently thought.
It makes you wonder, too, if this means those with secret accounts perjured themselves when they signed their tax returns, as well as the possibility of collusion of others?
Article at http://www.cnbc.com/id/29385606
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