An ongoing investigation of offshore investments handled by the Swiss bank UBS may have major repercussions in the U.S.
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As the New York Times reports today, federal authorities are looking at accounts managed by UBS for wealthy U.S. investors.
Investigators estimate that the bank’s customers may have hidden as much as $20 billion in assets from the IRS.
A former UBS banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, is expected to testify Monday that he helped a UBS client avoid taxes on $200 million, the Times reports.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations also is scheduled to hold hearings soon on offshore products offered by the bank.
The hearings, and possible charges filed by the IRS and the Justice Department, may prove an embarrassment not only to the bank and its customers, but to UBS vice chairman Phil Gramm and his favorite presidential candidate.
Gramm, a former senator from Texas, Gramm joined UBS in 2002, after 24 years in Congress. He also serves as national co-chairman of John McCain’s presidential bid.
McCain has worked hard in recent weeks to answer charges of having too many ties to lobbyists. Democrats, who today released a new ad called “McCain’s Lobbyist Friends,” charge that Gramm is another example of undue business influence.
Gramm has certainly weathered controversy before. His wife, Wendy, was a director of Enron.
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2 Comments
#1. Chery 06.07.2008
This has almost gotten to the point of being hilarious!! LOL
These are major corporations that all retain compliance teams!!! Fun, Fun!
#2. Connie 09.08.2008
Gramm is anything but funny.
Years before Phil Gramm was Senator McCain’s campaign adviser and a lobbyist for the Swiss bank, he was in the Senate and helped create today’s subprime meltdown.
Who was an influential architect for the worst financial catastrophe of our time?
Who, as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, routinely turned down Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt’s requests for money to police Wall Street?
Who pushed through a historic banking deregulation bill that destroyed firewall protections between commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies, and securities firms?
Who pushed through legislation that contained a provision–lobbied for by Enron–that exempted energy trading from regulatory oversight?
Whose efforts resulted in letting Enron wreck the California electricity market, cost consumers billions, and destroyed pensions for millions before it collapsed?
Whose wife later joined Enron’s Company Board and earned enough salary and stock income to generate almost $1.8 million for the Phil Gramm household?
Whose bill caused unregulated swaps that were “the heart of the subprime meltdown?
Whose bill in Congress meant, “Tens of trillions of dollars of transactions were done in the dark,” according to University of San Diego law professor, Frank Partnoy?
Who pushed his deregulation bill for friends in the financial industry after they had given him millions over his 24 year Congressional career?
Whose bill helped collapse a $62 trillion market (nearly 4x the size of the entire US stock market) because it allowed unregulated banks and hedge funds to stop proving they had the assets to cover losses they had guaranteed?
Who said to Greenberg, “You’re going around saying this was my fault—and it’s not my fault. I didn’t intend this.” (Michael Greenberger directed the CFTC’S division of trading and markets in the late 1990’s)
Whose record as a reckless deregulator hasn’t hurt his rating one bit as John McCain’s top economic expert?
The answers? Phil Gramm
In 2005, John McCain told a Wall Street Journal columnist that Gramm was his “economic guru.”
After so many have suffered from foreclosures, bank failures, pension fund collapses, and lost jobs overseas, John McCain thinks Phil Gramm should advise him on economic matters.
Does Phil Gramm feel any remorse for his many contributions to the economic crisis we face? He recently called the United States, “a nation of whiners.”
John McCain has been in Washington politics since 1982. During the last two administrations, he’s never been more powerful. His party dominated Washington politics. He’s a prominent Senator who consulted with the President hundreds of times.
Why didn’t Senator McCain change Washington politics when he had the close ties to Congress, the President and Supreme Court to make changes? Dr. Phil often says that the past is a good indication of future behavior. I think he’s right.
If Senator McCain couldn’t or wouldn’t do much when he had powerful allies, how can change Washington as an older statesman with recurring health problems, a VP with no Washington experience, and a Democratic Congress?
I’m just a housewife and grandmother. My opinion doesn’t mean much. However, information and records were easy to find even for me. If I can research the Internet, why aren’t mainstream journalists doing this too? Senator Obama’s advisors should be checked out too.
Full disclosure can help voters decide which candidate has good judgement in picking top advisors. As tragic as New Orleans was, this isn’t a FEMA job that effects just one city, one time. The next President should be asked to select the best and brightest advisors possible, especially for economic issues.
National security is at risk. We’ve been borrowing billions from other countries to finance a growing debt. We need the best economic advisors in the country to turn things around. Everything from defense, vet care, Social Security, and Homeland Security will suffer severe cuts if our economic decline continues.
Voters need to know more about top advisors for BOTH candidates. Washington insider influence must be stopped. Leaders need a moral compass, common sense and good judgement. If investigations show any person or corporation exploited the country during wartime, treason charges should be filed. Harsh penalties for harsh times. Corruption can’t be tolerated.
I owe it to those who serve this country, including my son, to be informed. Never before has this patriotic duty been more important. Regardless of party, we need to vote in the best leaders possible, regardless of party. They must be held accountable once elected.
Journalists need to do their jobs. Voters need to do their homework.
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