This is one of those "little threads" that run through many of the crises facing our world today. Like the Feds always say when tracking mobsters..."follow the money". The money itself, in this case the Swiss banking industry is the story. As you may remember, Bank Julius Baer managed to be in the middle of several BushCo scandals at once. Namely:
- Tax-dodges by the super wealthy Americans, set up in off-shore accounts to completely avoid paying taxes.
- Attempts to suppress the freedom of speech for Wikileaks
(Cross posted at The National Gadfly)
From Wikileaks:
Alex Widmer, the Chief Executive Officer of Bank Julius Baer has died unexpectedly at age 52.
The Swiss headquarted bank is the largest private banking group with over USD 300 billion in assets hidden or invested on behalf of extremely wealthy individuals and some institutions.
According to multiple independent press reports (Reuters, 20minutes), the cause of death was suicide. The reasons are not yet publicly known.
In February, the bank attempted, unsuccessfully, to sue Wikileaks in the United States over whistleblower revelations pertaining to the bank's Cayman Islands operations.
Dozens of revelations followed, from the exposure of Baer's internal tax avoidance plan to the Cayman Islands trust for the Caryle group revealed on Dec 1.
According to Reuters the bank has lost some 60% of its share price during 2008, although this puts it ahead of many in the current financial crisis.
Why he died is a mystery. I can think of three possible reasons:
- Mr. Widmer's wife had died in 2005 and perhaps his own death was in some way a measure of his grief for her passing.
- It is also possible that Mr. Widmer's suicide was due to knowledge of the facts in the tax evasion business of Bank Julius Baer. Perhaps he was burdened with the knowledge of the scandals involved with the owners of secret accounts. Although, Swiss Banks have been holding money for tyrants, murderers, drug dealers and thieves (besides the CIA) for centuries. I am not sure why that would start bothering someone just now.
- I feel for the teenage children of Mr. Widmer and hope that their father's death was not in fact a murder painted to look like a suicide. With the hundreds of millions of tax cheat money already disclosed and the possibility of even more as yet undiscovered, there is certainly enough criminal exposure to warrant an attack on Mr. Widmer. I will admit that I am paranoid after reading watching The Bourne Ultimatum last week, but there really is no honor among thieves. Especially when it comes to saving their hundreds of billions in hidden assets.
-gadfly