Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
Maybe you should have done so in 1934: Swiss Banking Act of 1934 (Wikipedia: bank secrecy)
Bank secrecy was codified in Switzerland by the 1934 Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks (Swiss Banking Act of 1934) following a public scandal in France, when MP Fabien Alberty denounced tax evasion by eminent French personalities, including politicians, judges, industrialists, church dignitaries and directors of newspapers, who were hiding their money in Switzerland. He called these men of "a particularly ticklish patriotism", who "probably are unaware that the money they deposit abroad is lent by Switzerland to Germany". The Peugeot brothers and François Coty, of the famous perfume family, were on his list. Since then, Swiss banks have acquired worldwide celebrity due to their numbered bank accounts, which critics such as ATTAC NGO alleged only help legalized tax evasion, money laundering and more generally the underground economy.


A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Feb 11th, 2015 at 05:19:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]
... which was a bit complicated, as his name was Fabien Albertin.

As Fabien Alberty, he seems well-known on the English-language internets, sometimes credited with having been Prime Minister. Albertin was briefly secretary for public works in 1940, then voted full powers to Pétain and disappeared down the toilet of history.


It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Wed Feb 11th, 2015 at 07:07:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:

Occasional Series