SWITZERLAND: 54,000 SWISS BANK ACCOUNTS BELONGING TO HOLOCAUST VICTIMS UNCOVERED DURING INVESTIGATIONS
Record ID:
566002
SWITZERLAND: 54,000 SWISS BANK ACCOUNTS BELONGING TO HOLOCAUST VICTIMS UNCOVERED DURING INVESTIGATIONS
- Title: SWITZERLAND: 54,000 SWISS BANK ACCOUNTS BELONGING TO HOLOCAUST VICTIMS UNCOVERED DURING INVESTIGATIONS
- Date: 6th December 1999
- Summary: ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (DECEMBER 6, 1999)(REUTERS) 1. PAN.MV: PANEL MEMBERS AT NEWS CONFERENCE (2 SHOTS) 0.22 2. SCU: BOARD SHOWING SOME PANEL FINDINGS 0.28 3. CU: PAUL VOLCKER SIGN, CHAIRMAN OF THE PANEL 0.32 4. SV: SOUNDBITE (English) VOLCKER INTRODUCING THE MEETING 0.46 5. PAN: PANEL MEMBERS OVER SOUNDBITE 1.02 6. CU: ISRAEL SINGER (2 SHOTS) 1.08 7. CU: ZIVI BARAK (2 SHOTS) 1.17 8. SV: SOUNDBITE (English) VOLCKER SPEAKS: "The auditors have reported no evidence of systematic destruction of records, of victim accounts, organised discrimination against the accounts of victims of Nazi persecution, or concerted efforts to divert the funds of victims of Nazi persecution to improper purposes. Those are generalisations about, in a sense, the general behaviour of banks." 1.50 9. C/A: JOURNALISTS 1.56 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 21st December 1999 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Switzerland
- Reuters ID: LVA1IGEU5HFXWD4QL0WP8FQWW7ZS
- Story Text: A panel that spent three years investigating whether
Swiss banks hoarded Holocaust victims' unclaimed wealth has
says it has identified nearly 54,000 accounts probably or
possibly linked to Nazi victims.
At a news conference on Monday (December 6) chairman
Paul Volcker said there was no systematic destruction of
records by Swiss banks.
"The auditors have reported no evidence of systematic
destruction of records....of victim accounts, organised
discrimination against the accounts of victims of Nazi
persecution, or concerted efforts to divert the funds of
victims of Nazi persecution to improper purposes," he said.
The panel said it recommended publishing the names on
those with the clearest links to Nazi victims -- around half
-- in a final effort to bring long-denied justice to Holocaust
victims and their families.
The panel added that although it had found no evidence
that Swiss banks had conspired to steal the riches in dormant
accounts, some banks were critizised for their callous
treatment of victims and sloppy record-keeping, especially
years ago.
The panel, headed by former U.S.Federal Reserve Chairman
Volcker, was set up by Swiss banks and Jewish groups in 1996
to pursue charges that banks stonewalled families seeking
wartime wealth put in neutral Switzerland for safekeeping.
Unveiling its final report, the committee said it was able
to trace around 60 percent of the accounts in Swiss banks when
World War Two ended in 1945, but was unable to put a final
value on the dormant accounts because its information was too
sketchy.
"The auditors have reported no evidence of systematic
destruction of records of victim accounts, organised
discrimination against the accounts of victims of Nazi
persecution, or concerted efforts to divert the funds...to
improper purposes," the report found.
But it also cited "confirmed evidence of questionable and
deceitful actions by some individual banks" in handling
victims' accounts.
In thousands of cases, the accounts were eaten up by fees,
transferred to banks' profits, or put in collective accounts
that drew no interest, it noted.
More than 36,000 accounts were closed without any
explanation that could be reconstructed by the 650 auditors
who pored over banks' records, matching 4.1 million accounts
with the names of Holocaust victims.
It found 417 accounts that were paid out to Nazi officials
who coerced the owners to withdraw their money.
The committee recommended waiving Swiss banking secrecy to
publish the names on 25,187 dormant or closed accounts which
had the best prospects of belonging to Holocaust victims.
The number is far higher than the 775 foreign dormant
accounts containing 38.7 million Swiss francs (24.46 million
United States dollars) that banks reported from a search in
1995, but also includes thousands of accounts that have been
closed in the meantime.
This new list -- to follow two earlier lists of dormant
accounts that banks have already published -- would give
people another chance to claim money that belonged to their
families.
The committee said claims to the money should be
sufficiently covered by a 1.25 billion USD payment that UBS AG
and Credit Suisse Group proposed last year to settle U.S.
class action lawsuits against them, other companies and the
Swiss government.
The panel said more work remained to be done, especially
in researching wealth that was handled for Holocaust victims
by intermediaries or that was looted by senior Nazis.
For example, it found 1,622 accounts that matched the
names of senior Nazi officials or European Nazi collaborators.
Nevertheless, it said it had done the best job possible to
determine the fate of dormant Holocaust-era accounts.
"The committee is satisfied that its work has now
developed the record of the Swiss banks with respect to the
funds of victims of Nazi persecution with as much detail,
objectivity and accuracy as the passage of time allows," it said.
"In that sense, the committee believes this one chapter in
the long and sad story of the consequences of Nazi brutality
can be drawn to a close," it said.
The Swiss Bankers Association also called for the curtain
to be drawn on what was at times an acrimonious battle between
banks and Jewish groups.At one point it threatened to boil
over into a general boycott of Swiss banks.
The bankers association said the report, coupled with
the big banks' 1.25 billion USD settlement and a 200 million
USD humanitarian fund set up by Swiss banks and businesses in
1997 to help needy Holocaust victims, meant "moral and
financial justice has been achieved".
The report "dispels any notion that there was a concerted
effort by Swiss banks to single out victims of Nazi
persecution.In other words, there was no conspiracy and no
cover-up as had been previously alleged by the Jewish
organisations," it added.
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