Around 2001, Credit Suisse signed an agreement with the IRS in which it agreed to withhold taxes from accounts held by Americans and prohibit them from holding U.S. investments. Afterward, the bank's compliance department told bankers, including Mr. Bachmann and his bosses, not to talk about U.S. securities with U.S. customers, according to the statement.
But the bankers ignored it, according to the statement. After the session, Mr. Bachmann complained about the restrictions. An executive told him something to the effect of: "You know what we expect of you-don't get caught," the statement said.
A Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment on the material disclosed in the statement.
U.S. authorities so far have only been able to identify a relatively small number of the American clients believed to have used the bank to hide undeclared money, due to Switzerland's strict bank-secrecy laws, according to Senate investigators.
This is what looks to be the first shot at the 1% starting the "war against tax-evaders."
Bachmann was charged in a one-count superseding indictment on July 21, 2011, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison when he is sentenced on Aug. 8, 2014.
In a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Bachmann admitted that between 1994 and 2006, while working as a relationship manager in Switzerland for a subsidiary of an international bank, he engaged in a wide-ranging conspiracy to aid and assist U.S. customers in evading their income taxes by concealing assets and income in secret Swiss bank accounts.
As part of that conspiracy, Bachmann traveled to the United States twice each year to provide banking services and investment advice to his U.S. customers. As a matter of practice, prior to traveling to the United States, Bachmann notified his executive management, including the head of the subsidiary’s private bank in Zurich and the chief executive officer of the subsidiary, of the planned trip and its objectives.
If you were to compare this to the drug war, this is comparable to nabbing one of the mules; an underling working for higher ups in a cartels of influential and powerful well placed people in the finance industry who launder money for people addicted to money (though you couldn't convince them that).
Unlike mules in the drug trade these people wear 3-piece suits, travel first class, stay in 5 star hotels and carry briefcases full money for super rich, money crazed people who will go to any lengths to hoard their stash. Some even go so far as to renounce their citizenship before ever giving up a dime of tax revenue (now that's a sure fire symptom of addiction)
2013 Expatriations Increase by 221%
Today the Treasury Department published the names of individuals who renounced their U.S. citizenship or terminated their long-term U.S. residency (“expatriated”) during the fourth quarter of 2013.
The number of published expatriates for the quarter was 630, bringing the total number of published expatriates in 2013 to 2,999. The total for the year shatters the previous record high of 1,781 set in 2011 and is a 221% increase over the 2012 total of 932.
For those that decide to remain and hedge their bets that they will not be prosecuted the odds are in their favor.
So, here's a little of what the banks that aid and abet provide these tax-evaders.
NOTE: Some of this behavior is reminiscent of drug deals and other gangster-type money laundering operations but without any repercussions to those involved.
NOTE: Some of this behavior is reminiscent of drug deals and other gangster-type money laundering operations but without any repercussions to those involved.
Mr. Bachmann effectively operated as a personal ATM for some of those clients, using one client's deposits to fulfill another's withdrawal.
It was all part of a routine that enabled Mr. Bachmann to help clients avoid U.S. taxes., according to a statement presented in a Virginia court and agreed to by Mr. Bachmann.
According to the documents released by the Senate last month, one former customer told Senate investigators that a Credit Suisse banker handed over bank statements concealed in a copy of Sports Illustrated and ushered the client to a meeting in Switzerland in a remote-controlled elevator.
Mr. Bachmann oversaw between 25 and 30 clients of the Credit Suisse subsidiary, many of whom held accounts that he knew were undeclared to the Internal Revenue Service, according to his statement.
He admitted to helping those customers avoid U.S. taxes and told them how to structure transactions so they wouldn't get reported to U.S. regulators, the statement said. On twice-yearly visits to his American customers, Mr. Bachmann showed them copies of their account statements but warned them about the risk of keeping them, since they could be seized by U.S. authorities.
The statement also describes Mr. Bachmann's travels around the U.S. with large amounts of cash for customers who wanted to withdraw money. He wouldn't leave or enter the country with hard currency, but he would sometimes take cash from a customer who wanted to make a deposit and deliver it to another who wanted to make a withdrawal.
It's absolutely amazing to me that in a country supposedly governed by the "rule of law" that a group of elite and wealthy individuals are given free reign to flaunt laws and have little or no concern of ever being caught and/or punished for these crimes. They; we are told are just too powerful and the government is unable to muster the resources to take them down. That folks is something we should all be concerned about.
It was all part of a routine that enabled Mr. Bachmann to help clients avoid U.S. taxes., according to a statement presented in a Virginia court and agreed to by Mr. Bachmann.
According to the documents released by the Senate last month, one former customer told Senate investigators that a Credit Suisse banker handed over bank statements concealed in a copy of Sports Illustrated and ushered the client to a meeting in Switzerland in a remote-controlled elevator.
Mr. Bachmann oversaw between 25 and 30 clients of the Credit Suisse subsidiary, many of whom held accounts that he knew were undeclared to the Internal Revenue Service, according to his statement.
He admitted to helping those customers avoid U.S. taxes and told them how to structure transactions so they wouldn't get reported to U.S. regulators, the statement said. On twice-yearly visits to his American customers, Mr. Bachmann showed them copies of their account statements but warned them about the risk of keeping them, since they could be seized by U.S. authorities.
The statement also describes Mr. Bachmann's travels around the U.S. with large amounts of cash for customers who wanted to withdraw money. He wouldn't leave or enter the country with hard currency, but he would sometimes take cash from a customer who wanted to make a deposit and deliver it to another who wanted to make a withdrawal.
It's absolutely amazing to me that in a country supposedly governed by the "rule of law" that a group of elite and wealthy individuals are given free reign to flaunt laws and have little or no concern of ever being caught and/or punished for these crimes. They; we are told are just too powerful and the government is unable to muster the resources to take them down. That folks is something we should all be concerned about.
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