The Road of Plundering Peoples' Wealth: Switzerland's Story

12-8-2018

-        Switzerland...with the beauty of its Alpine mountains...it entered a state of neutrality in 1516 after its defeat before the French army..and its neutrality was recognized internationally at the Congress of Vienna in 1815... . And being a neutral state makes it distant from any wars, or conflicts, or revolutions, whether international or regional,...which makes the place there safe for money.. Switzerland has remained safe, and far removed from disputes, even during the First or Second World Wars, which took place in neighboring countries...also Switzerland is not a member of the European Union...or the Eurozone...and this spares Switzerland the obligation to follow any external laws, in addition to the banking system in Switzerland enjoying complete secrecy for accounts,..where any individual – the client – can open an account in Swiss banks, without having to give his name...or any personal information...the client deposits the funds and in return is given...a code that allows him to access his account...and no authority can trace his account.. but the client must...comply with certain procedures to preserve the secrecy of his account...and someone may be informed of his personal number...to enable him to transact...in the funds and the account without the need to give a power of attorney..

-        Switzerland, with its neutrality and banking secrecy, is considered a safe haven to deposit the funds of many autocratic rulers; it is not subject to the euro area, so its currency the Swiss franc remains on the market. And strong, as the exchange rate of the Swiss franc equals one dollar per Swiss franc.
Many questions have arisen about banking secrecy, Swiss neutrality, and the fate of the wealth of many peoples, piled up in secret accounts of the rulers of those countries, without an easy possibility of recovery... but Switzerland, as officials there have announced, strives to organize all the means related to freezing and returning assets to their owners through appropriate legislation.

-        The process that takes place between the countries claiming their looted wealth and Switzerland...is complex and long, as such a process requires: monitoring, tracing, engaging sectors of civil society, using new technology for cash transfers,..and restricting the beneficiaries of the returned funds,..all that under the supervision of the World Bank...in order to ensure that the returned funds are spent to support programs in favor of the peoples of those countries......These funds transferred by the rulers and their entourages...are monies derived from many deals of commissions and bribes and tax evasion, money laundering,...thefts..and transfers from those countries’ central banks, and many other cases. The parties to these operations are the dictatorial rulers...and nationals of the countries....also... noting that most cases of foreign corruption on Swiss soil may not yet have been discovered..

-        And examples of looted funds, by way of example and not limitation: the Brazilian oil group (Petrobras)...the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, Ukraine, the Philippines,..Haiti, the Republic of the Congo, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya...Nigeria...etc.

-        And when he was asked about accelerating the process of returning stolen funds to the concerned countries, on 1-1-2018, the President of the Swiss Confederation...Alain Berset...said that Switzerland "wants to move much faster... but the return of these assets must be done in accordance with legal procedures, and with full certainty...that these funds will reach their correct destination..."

-        A long time elapses in order to prove the illegitimacy or illegality of these funds by the new ruling faction in the claimant country, and lengthy periods may pass to deliver such proof..which sometimes puts the claim into a statute of limitations, after which the countries’ right to recover the stolen funds lapses...Discussions were held by the Swiss Federal Assembly..in its upper and lower chambers..regarding shifting the burden of proof of the illegitimacy of these balances off the shoulders of the claimant countries, so that this burden would be required from the owners of the balances themselves or their defenders, and this is a kind of assistance to the plundered countries if enacted..because proving illegitimacy requires time and money and collecting evidence that takes a long time. For example...the campaign to pursue the recovery of the looted wealth from Hosni Mubarak and his associates cost about $120 million, between expenses and salaries, travel allowances, fees for foreign lawyers....noting that the value claimed from Switzerland, in Mubarak and his followers’ case, was about $1 billion initially..however some funds were returned to some of Mubarak’s associates, after they were acquitted by the Egyptian courts...returned to them..that is, to the owners of the balances in Switzerland..which provoked the anger of large sectors of pressure groups and followers demanding the return of the funds..stolen from the Mubarak regime...after his ouster in 2011...and an amount of $430 million may remain...belonging to 30 persons close to Mubarak – the deposed former Egyptian president....they were frozen initially by the Swiss authorities as a precaution...after Mubarak’s ouster on 11/2/2011 half an hour...and the freeze was renewed in 2016, yet the Swiss authorities..lifted the freeze on these funds, and closed the door to mutual legal assistance.....citing lack of proof....according to the Swiss authorities' claim..."

-        And an example of the difficulty of recovering the looted wealth of peoples by their rulers is Nigeria, where negotiations took place between Switzerland and Nigeria to recover hundreds of millions of embezzled dollars, estimated at $2.2 billion USD, transferred by the former dictator Sani Abacha, through the Central Bank of Nigeria, in addition to transfers from his close associates during his rule between 1993 -1998. Amounts of about $321 million were returned, requiring a period of time in negotiations that reached 20 years...between the two parties.. noting that another amount was returned from Switzerland (from Abacha’s funds) in 2005 of $700 million...and despite that, there are still large amounts belonging to the Nigerian people in Switzerland that have not yet been recovered...according to many sources..

-        It is worth noting that there are funds that were confiscated because the countries did not claim them within the permitted times to file claims...or the failure of such countries to provide mutual legal assistance...to reach conclusive evidence...based on which decisions would be made by the Swiss......
However, on the benevolent side of secret accounts in Switzerland, there are secret accounts belonging to individuals, or resistance movements, in which Switzerland is the safe haven to protect these legitimate accounts from being reached by the hands of tyrannical rulers or occupiers.. Although opening accounts at these banks, which do not require information or identity documents, are exactly like the cemetery of numbers...the owner of the funds carries a code.or a code..that is difficult to trace as we aforementioned, and it is also difficult...to find the fortune of the code-holder...upon his death...and vast sums belonging to revolutionary movements, liberation and resistance movements of many countries were lost...when some of these fronts’ funds were deposited in Switzerland during their countries’ occupation, in the names of persons who died after independence....in addition to funds of ordinary individuals or traders fleeing international surveillance and fund tracing,...they have balances in Switzerland..amounting to millions of dollars, and upon their death..most related people do not know about these balances, and they are confiscated when the legal periods permitted for claiming them expire...and some associations defending the necessity of returning looted funds to their countries have estimated that the funds of individuals other than tyrant rulers, which were confiscated from the accounts of deceased persons, and without claimants...due to no person in the deceased’s country knowing about these funds..are huge amounts, estimated in the billions of dollars....Such associations launch campaigns and hold seminars defending Switzerland’s reputation, and the necessity of not opening secret accounts for individuals from unstable countries...because in their philosophy, it is not necessary to practice tricks to guarantee success, and among these associations in Switzerland is “Ain al-Jumhur”.

-        And one of the large Swiss banks involved in opening secret accounts is Credit Suisse.. the second largest bank in Switzerland..

-        The Swiss authorities were subjected to pressure by the United States of America...to lift the wall of secrecy over accounts and balances belonging to Americans who keep accounts at Swiss banks, in order to examine their tax situation in the United States, and it did not help that bank secrecy is sacred among the Swiss, so Switzerland, following these pressures, provided lists of accounts of Americans..in addition also to some European countries.......In this regard, the United States of America distributed memos to all countries of the world, requesting lists of the names of Americans who keep accounts in those countries...and our banks, and all Arab countries..provide such lists of information, periodically, to the Ministry of Finance American through an established and permanent coordination..

-        My well-informed sources estimated that Arab funds in Switzerland..(a statistic by the Arab Swiss Chamber of Commerce and Industry), exceed the amount of $200 billion....a figure that others doubt and who estimate Arab balances in Switzerland ...at approximately $2 trillion....and no ordinary person can know the figures precisely...due to the secrecy applied in the banks, in addition to pressures to which Switzerland is subjected from interest groups, for owners of secret accounts.

-        In this regard, the American president recently hinted, with the threat of exposing the accounts of some Arab regimes in Switzerland, for those who hesitate to comply with his dictates and objectives.
Some of the funds of the Arab peoples...and of some peoples of the world, were drained, and are being drained by their rulers, and some of their subjects...by smuggling the funds they acquired through illegitimate means,....to the shrine of banking secrecy and neutrality....Switzerland.....this is an issue of great importance, and this matter must be activated, with the United Nations Committee on Combating Corruption....and cooperation among all sectors of civil society .and all its concerned institutions including bar associations and others, and international institutions, to document cases of evasion and smuggling..by officials and individuals, so that the rights and funds of the people are not lost, between the difficulty of producing evidence, and these cases entering into statutes of limitation, and confiscation, to entities other than their original rightful claimants in the country....despite the pressures and threats to which these active anti-corruption actors are exposed..

-        To the extent that the snows of the Swiss Alps are white, and beautiful...to that extent is the darkness and blackness of the reputation of Swiss banks....as a place to deposit the thefts of peoples’ funds. Although these banks may, on the other hand,...be a safe haven for nationals of some tyrannical states, fleeing with their money to Swiss banks, for fear of it being stolen or confiscated, without legal cause or restraint, by oppressive regimes......... nevertheless Switzerland bears a moral responsibility in this regard...because its uniquely secret banking system, and its failure to verify the legitimacy of the source of these funds, assist in the plunder of peoples’ funds...

-        Most rulers of the Arab peoples...seem to hold fast to part of a saying. It is narrated about our master Ali bin Abi Talib (رض) that he said, "Work for your worldly life as if you will live forever.." .These rulers open secret accounts for themselves and their relatives, and deposit looted funds from the funds of these peoples, in Switzerland...to guarantee their end....and we complete the aforementioned saying of our master Ali bin Abi Talib (رض), and direct it to our Arab rulers..."And work for your Hereafter as if you will die tomorrow"....May God prolong your lives...neither money nor sons will benefit you.....The hidden is greater, and God is Most High and Most Knowing.