Free Republic

Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker, author of the treasonous Corker – Cardin bill to facilitate President Obama’s nuclear weapons treaty with Islamist Iran, has made another inexplicable betrayal of American military superiority and indeed the future of America itself. The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which Corker authored, requires the Administration transmit to Congress all documents related to the JCPOA —including side agreements—prior to a 60-day review period and subsequent vote. There’s no doubt that Obama has not complied with the terms of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, indeed Senator Corker said “there’s no question that two of the...

The State Department (which Hillary Clinton used to run and where she still holds significant influence) has been very clear about one thing. There is no relationship between donations to the Clinton Foundation and actions taken by the Secretary of State during her tenure there. Period. Full stop. End of discussion. Perish the thought. You’re all just a bunch of Clinton haters who are trying to stop the ongoing charity work of these wonderful people. And yet for some strange reason we keep seeing stories like this. Hillary hadn’t even finished unpacking her things in her new office at...

"As if millions of macro hedge funds suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced" Over two decades ago, George Soros took on the Bank of England, and won. Just before lunch local time, the Swiss National Bank took on virtually every single macro hedge fund, the vast majority of which were short the Swiss Franc and crushed them, when it announced, first, that it would go further into NIRP, pushing its interest rate on deposit balances even more negative from -0.25% to -0.75%, a move which in itself would have been unprecedented and, second, announcing that the 1.20...

Global markets were thrown into turmoil on Thursday as a shock move by Switzerland to abandon its more than three-year-old cap on the franc sent the currency soaring and Europe's shares and bond yields tumbling. The franc jumped by almost 30 percent in a chaotic few minutes after the 1.20 per euro cap in place since late 2011 was lifted, surging past parity to trade as high as 0.8052 francs per euro. It was trading at 1.02600 at just after 1200 GMT. The move reversed an earlier rebound in risk appetite following an overnight recovery in commodity prices. Over 100...

More Swiss banks are dropping out of the U.S. banking program that the IRS supposedly uses to prevent American citizens from stashing cash overseas to avoid taxes. Known for 100 years as the original tax haven, free from the prying eyes of governments around the world, Swiss banks have provided banking services that guaranteed anonymity to arms dealers, Nazis, and law-abiding Americans alike.Offshore banks, especially Swiss banks, are not generally used to evade taxes however. The government already has enforcement mechanisms in place to prevent tax evasion by the use of offshore banks by American citizens. No smart rich person,...

ZURICH (Reuters) - At least 10 Swiss banks have withdrawn from a U.S. program aimed at settling a tax dispute between them and the United States, Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag said on Sunday, quoting unnamed sources. Around 100 Swiss banks came forward at the end of last year to work with U.S. authorities in a program brokered by the Swiss government to help the banks make amends for aiding tax evasion. "At least 10 banks that had decided at the end of 2013 to pay a fine have withdrawn their decision," NZZ am Sonntag said, quoting unnamed lawyers and...

ZURICH, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The Swiss government said it will order banks to freeze any funds in Swiss banks found to be linked to ousted President Viktor Yanukovich. "The federal council decided yesterday to freeze any Yanukovich funds found in Switzerland," government spokesman Andre Simonazzi said in an emailed statement.

George Clooney headlined a fund-raiser Monday that took in more than a half-million dollars for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. Organizers said they took in at least $625,000 from U.S. donors for Obama’s campaign, including many who flew in to Geneva, Switzerland, from around the world for the one-night event.

Wow! The Department of Justice took an extraordinary step yesterday. It indicted Swiss private bank, Bank Wegelin, for aiding and abetting in US income tax fraud....

More shades of 2008, as banks put out statements about how everything is going fine. Yesterday The Fed said it had provided $200 million of liquidity to the Swiss National Bank in the form of forex swaps, starting speculation about funding tensions among Swiss banks.

'I can confirm that Switzerland has frozen possible assets of the former Egyptian president with immediate effect,' spokesman Lars Knuchel said soon after Mr Mubarak bowed to 18 days of mass protests. 'As a result of this measure any assets are frozen for three years.' He did not say how much money was involved or where it was. Assets belonging to Mr Mubarak's associates would also be targeted so as to limit the chance of state funds being plundered, the ministry said.

Former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer on Monday gave WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange data on about 2,000 clients that he contends may have evaded taxes, published reports said. At a press conference in London, Elmer told reporters about 40 politicians and “pillars of society” were among the individuals he gave Assange information on, the reports said. Elmer told The Observer newspaper during the weekend that the individuals named in the data include “business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates — from both sides of the Atlantic.” Elmer once headed the Cayman Islands office...

As part of a voluntary program that ended on October 15, some 7,500 Americans with hidden offshore bank accounts ended the game of hide and seek with the IRS. They finally decided to tell the government where to find their assets. Some of these hidden accounts were pretty hard to lose track of --- one had more than $100 million in it.

A Swiss bank that used its Cayman Islands’ branch to engage in what a US federal judge has branded “predatory lending practices” is being investigated by the US authorities. Senior officials of Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, are facing claims that they pocketed millions of dollars by dishing out loans that were impossible to repay. On Tuesday, 15 September, 31 of the bank’s officials received subpoenas demanding that they hand over internal documents that explain why they loaned $375 million to the now bankrupt Yellowstone Club in 2005. The Yellowstone Club, founded by American tycoon Tim Blixseth, was once...

Ex-Wives Eagerly Await UBS Tax-Cheater List By Stephen Gandel It's not just the U.S. government that wants to get its hands on the list of Americans who hold secretive Swiss bank accounts. Ex-wives, creditors and former business partners are also salivating over the idea that a settlement between the U.S., the Swiss government and a Swiss bank may lead to the public disclosure of as many as 4,450 U.S. individuals that used the foreign bank accounts to hide money. Prominent New York City divorce lawyer Raoul Lionel Felder says he is already getting calls from clients who want to know...

... Apart from the diplomatic ramifications, the government's request for so broad a swath of information could well run afoul of the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable search. The Obama Administration should use the court reprieve to rethink the whole case.

* U.S. judge orders U.S. govt to say how far it would go * Switzerland says would stop UBS handing over client data * Berne says may seize UBS client data, if necessary * Judge may be pushing for a settlement A judge ordered the U.S. government to say whether it was prepared to shut Swiss bank UBS AG (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N) in the United States as part of a battle to learn the identity of 52,000 secret accounts suspected of being used by Americans to avoid taxes. U.S. District Judge Alan Gold, set to preside over a hearing Monday of...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Thousands of Americans who thought they had a secret Swiss bank account will have their names and account details given to the U.S. Internal Revenue Services under an agreement announced Wednesday among U.S. and Swiss authorities and the Swiss bank UBS. The IRS said Americans would no longer be able to evade taxes so easily by hiding their assets in offshore accounts.The agreement comes as U.S. tax authorities conduct a criminal investigation into Americans who used Swiss bank accounts at UBS AG to avoid paying U.S. taxes. The settlement follows demands from the U.S. authorities that the...

In America – formerly the home of free enterprise – the government now owns the banking system, AIG, and General Motors...

As the war over alleged U.S. tax evaders and Swiss banking secrecy laws heats up, UBS is at risk of losing both its banking license and U.S. assets, says Ken Rubinstein, senior partner at Rubinstein & Rubinstein, and a specialist in areas of estate and tax planning. This week, the Swiss government said it would seize UBS data in order to prevent the Justice Department from obtaining the identities of 52,000 American account holders. But Rubinstein doesn't believe that will shield UBS, since the bank earlier this year admitted it send private bankers to the U.S. with the express intent...