Corruption Scandal Roils Switzerland – US-FOREX.US
A senior Swiss official accepting a 45,000 bribe? The U.S. citizen who made the allegation as he pled guilty to hiding money from the U.S. government might just has well have insulted all Swiss grannies. Switzerland prides itself on its clean image: the country ranks fifth on the 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International, which measures the perceived levels of corruption based on expert assessment and opinion surveys. The country also ranks third in the organization’s Bribe Payers Index, a survey which ranks countries in terms of their tendency to pay bribes abroad, starting with the least corrupt. However, the perception and the reality of corruption are quite different things, says Anne Schwoebel, managing director of Transparency International Switzerland. “We may not have many corruption cases but that doesn’t mean that corruption isn’t taking place. The ten or so cases that are prosecuted each year are just the tip of the iceberg,” she says.
Its Switzerland’s climate of secrecy that is probably contributing to its corruption problem. “Whistleblowers are not very well protected legally under Swiss law and can be dismissed, while the compensation they receive is small,” says Schwoebel, who added that a recent draft reform to improve the situation for whistleblowers was still well short of what was needed. “It’s a small country: people know each other and help each other. It’s very difficult to unearth corruption.” The reaction in Switzerland on Wednesday to the news out of the U.S. late on Tuesday was one of disbelief. As federal prosecutors said they were mounting an investigation, Hans-Rudolf Merz, the finance minister who currently holds the rotating presidency of Switzerland, expressed his skepticism about the accusations, warning it was important to distinguish “rumors” from “reality.”"There are different means to wage psychological warfare and – to say -it dramatically – some statements are made to exert pressure,” he told Swiss television. On Wednesday, a much anticipated trial commences in Florida, in which U.S. authorities will attempt to wrestle the details of some 52,000 UBS
clients in a dispute over tax evasion. On Tuesday, Jeffrey P. Chernick, a New York state resident pled guilty to filing false tax returns by hiding money in Swiss accounts. He said an unnamed attorney had told him thanks to a high ranking official his name would not be handed over to a U.S. tax probe, and that that official had been paid 45,000. However, his details were passed on as part of UBS’s 780 million settlement in February.