Swiss Money Laundering Control Office Under Fire

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

11 July 2001

Just days after the President of the Swiss Bankers' Association, Urs Philipp Roth was in Paris trying to salvage the reputation of the Swiss banking sector in the wake of a series of scandals, new controversy surrounding the country's Money Laundering Control Office has arisen.

The newly departed former chief, Niklaus Huber, who resigned last month after disagreements about his role, is at the centre of the latest drama, which revolves around the non-recognition of a self-regulation group in early 2000. Officially, as self-regulation organisations supervise their affiliates', intermediaries', and subsidiaries' adherence to the Money Laundering Law, Mr Huber, as head of the control office, should have recused himself because of a conflict of interest.

However, at the end of last month, there was strong evidence to suggest that he had actually been involved in the decision not to grant recognition to the body in question. Then last week, the situation became more heated when Huber's former superior, Ulrich Gygi issued a statement (contradicting his previous testimony, in which he explicitly stated that Mr Huber had not been involved in the ruling), saying that he may have 'revised the language' of the second draft. The reasoning given for this was that Mr Huber's former assistent was a Francophone Swiss, and as a result, the German wording of the ruling contained 'a few linguistic rough spots'. Gygi stated that Niklaus Huber had not been involved in the third draft of the ruling at all, but that he had failed to inform the Finance Ministry of Huber's involvement in the second draft.

Federal Councilor Kaspar Villiger's mind was clearly boggling at the latest turn of events, and he called Gygi's latest statement 'shocking', remarking despairingly that: 'There are moments in the life of a federal councilor when you feel you're in a madhouse.'

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