Rudolf Elmer on Thursday was convicted of breaking Swiss banking secrecy laws and promptly slapped over the wrist with a negligible fine which was also suspended for 2 years. A brief overview looking forward to the release of the 2000 files handed to Wikileaks last week.
Rudolf Elmer, the banking system and Wikileaks.
Rudolf Elmer on Thursday was convicted of breaking Swiss banking secrecy laws and promptly slapped over the wrist with a negligible fine which was also suspended for 2 years.
In what was potentially a case that could have sent shockwaves around the world regarding the illicit practices of the financial industries through offshore banking and tax evasion, there was more of a whimper in the outcome in what is starting to look like a well orchestrated cover up.
Elmer was the latest in a line of whistleblowers to publicly pass over documents to Wikileaks which threaten to throw major accusations of tax evasion to the 2000 or so reported investors whose details are included. Assange of Wikileaks has been reported as saying that they will not be released anytime soon until scrutinised.
The greater implications should have been for the organisers of these operations, if there were to be a proper system in place that held the financial industry responsible for their actions. Unfortunately money runs the law and the politics of all nations.
Elmer a Swiss national based in the Cayman Islands for Julius Baer Bank & Trust Co Ltd before being dismissed in 2002, claims he was later subjected to 'a campaign of "psycho-terror" against him and his family and that his emplyers had offered him 500,000 francs to keep quiet', The Guardian reports. In response the bank claims he made bomb threats and demanded $50k for the data he held.
In 2008 Elmer approached Wikileaks and passed on several documents pertaining to the immoral set up of hidden companies for the filtering of profits and ultimately tax evasion, this was with the understanding of the tax authorities.
The following are extracts taken from Elmers statement on Wikileaks.
---
* Julius Baer Bank and Trust Co. Ltd, Cayman Islands (the bank)
* Julius Baer Trust Co Ltd, Cayman Islands (the administrative company)
* URSA Ltd., Cayman Islands (the insurance company)
* Baer Select Management Ltd, Cayman Islands (the investment manager)
* CreInvest Ltd, Cayman Islands (the hedge fund)
* shaPE Ltd, Cayman Islands (the private equity company)
The rip-off
Especially the case of shaPE is a violation of Corporate Governance. The majority of customers who have invested in this product are customers of Bank Julius Baer. These customers gave a mandate for asset management to the bank. The management has exploited this and indirectly forced their own consultants to buy shaPE bonds for the customers. This amounts to CHF 130,000,000 that has forcibly been invested to make a success of the shaPE entity in respectively generating more fees offshore. The shaPE stock is an ''underperformer'' compared to the market. The bank profits around 1.5% from the CHF 130,000,000 though, which equals to 2,000,000 annually. It generates untaxed profits from its suffering customer's assets.
Julius Baer people responsible for Cayman operations.
Raymond Baer, VR President, Julius Baer Holding AG. VR President CreInvest AG.
Rudolf E Baer, former CEO, Julius Baer Holding AG. VR of JBBT Cayman
Walter Knabenhans, former CEO, Julius Baer Holding AG. President Adv board JBBT Cayman
(now President, Bellevue Group AG. 2008 was elected Vice Chairman, Takeover Board of Swiss Federal Banking Commission)*addition
Michael Vukotic, director, Julius Baer Bank AG. Adv board JBBT Cayman.
Martin Vogel, Advisory board, JBBT Cayman.
(now Assoc. the Directors Office, Luxembourg. Swiss Bar Assoc. member also)*addition
Fabio Oetterli, director, Baer Select Mgmt, Cayman. Director, Bank Julius Baer & Co AG
In 2008 Julius Baer Group assets under management was 400 billion CHF!
---
One of their clients whom they were advising, Noble Group of Hong Kong, wanted to set up investment companies for tax avoidance, namely Noble Investments of Zurich(SA) and Bermuda(BU) although he only related to these as NISA with Swiss resident beneficial owners 'Mr A' and 'Mr G' and NIBU with foreign beneficial owners 'Mr B' and 'Ltd Bermuda' (the associated names had been omitted from the documents). The two investment companies were set up in 2001.
Further research by the American Lucy Komisar highlighted another setup in Jersey as a front for signing contracts and also located company records in Zurich of NISA in liquidation in 2008. The following are the names of the directors taken from the documents at her site, I have added more information regarding the original members of the board.
Georg Steiger (Swi), member of board 2001
(Mr B?) Colin Barrow (Suffolk, UK), President 2001, later member of board - now leader Westminster Council and Director of Alpha Strategic / millionaire from hedge funds / benefit fraud accusations while working for councils in Suffolk and Westminster / freemason / was responsible for building Man Group into world leading hedge fund management company in the early 90's.
Richard Elman (Hong Kong) Vice President 2001, later President – Noble Group (Hong Kong) founder & CEO / Commodities billionaire
(Mr G?) Mauro Gerli (Swi), member of board 2001 – now Director of Credit Suisse / formerly Man Group also
(Mr A?) Patrick Aregger (Swi), delegate of board 2001, later VP – now Exec. Director Oppenheim Landert Family Office AG / formerly Man Group also
Jeffrey Mark Alam (Hong Kong), later member of board.
Thomas Gross (Swi), later member of board
Daniel Holenstein, (Swi) later member of board
Ernst & Young (Zurich), were the auditors from 2001.
Also revealed were other details including their involvement in a drug running and money laundering operation in Mexico and details of a US citizen who had lost millions even though he had instructed his account managers to cover the eventuality of such.
This is just a snapshot of what was going on with regards to Baer Group and their clients, the truth goes far deeper, the web of deceit and corruption goes on. Hopefully Wikileaks will give full exposure of the recent files for all to see, although I fear a deal may already have been made.
sources (with thanks)
Wikileaks
thekomisarscoop.com
The Independent
The Guardian
cbarrow.com
nutsville.com
linkedin.com
businessweek.com
Google
---
Anonymous the movement
A collection of individuals and free thinkers
Anonymity is your greatest weapon
As nobody knows who you really are
Be true to yourself and walk free
Rudolf Elmer on Thursday was convicted of breaking Swiss banking secrecy laws and promptly slapped over the wrist with a negligible fine which was also suspended for 2 years.
In what was potentially a case that could have sent shockwaves around the world regarding the illicit practices of the financial industries through offshore banking and tax evasion, there was more of a whimper in the outcome in what is starting to look like a well orchestrated cover up.
Elmer was the latest in a line of whistleblowers to publicly pass over documents to Wikileaks which threaten to throw major accusations of tax evasion to the 2000 or so reported investors whose details are included. Assange of Wikileaks has been reported as saying that they will not be released anytime soon until scrutinised.
The greater implications should have been for the organisers of these operations, if there were to be a proper system in place that held the financial industry responsible for their actions. Unfortunately money runs the law and the politics of all nations.
Elmer a Swiss national based in the Cayman Islands for Julius Baer Bank & Trust Co Ltd before being dismissed in 2002, claims he was later subjected to 'a campaign of "psycho-terror" against him and his family and that his emplyers had offered him 500,000 francs to keep quiet', The Guardian reports. In response the bank claims he made bomb threats and demanded $50k for the data he held.
In 2008 Elmer approached Wikileaks and passed on several documents pertaining to the immoral set up of hidden companies for the filtering of profits and ultimately tax evasion, this was with the understanding of the tax authorities.
The following are extracts taken from Elmers statement on Wikileaks.
---
* Julius Baer Bank and Trust Co. Ltd, Cayman Islands (the bank)
* Julius Baer Trust Co Ltd, Cayman Islands (the administrative company)
* URSA Ltd., Cayman Islands (the insurance company)
* Baer Select Management Ltd, Cayman Islands (the investment manager)
* CreInvest Ltd, Cayman Islands (the hedge fund)
* shaPE Ltd, Cayman Islands (the private equity company)
The rip-off
Especially the case of shaPE is a violation of Corporate Governance. The majority of customers who have invested in this product are customers of Bank Julius Baer. These customers gave a mandate for asset management to the bank. The management has exploited this and indirectly forced their own consultants to buy shaPE bonds for the customers. This amounts to CHF 130,000,000 that has forcibly been invested to make a success of the shaPE entity in respectively generating more fees offshore. The shaPE stock is an ''underperformer'' compared to the market. The bank profits around 1.5% from the CHF 130,000,000 though, which equals to 2,000,000 annually. It generates untaxed profits from its suffering customer's assets.
Julius Baer people responsible for Cayman operations.
Raymond Baer, VR President, Julius Baer Holding AG. VR President CreInvest AG.
Rudolf E Baer, former CEO, Julius Baer Holding AG. VR of JBBT Cayman
Walter Knabenhans, former CEO, Julius Baer Holding AG. President Adv board JBBT Cayman
(now President, Bellevue Group AG. 2008 was elected Vice Chairman, Takeover Board of Swiss Federal Banking Commission)*addition
Michael Vukotic, director, Julius Baer Bank AG. Adv board JBBT Cayman.
Martin Vogel, Advisory board, JBBT Cayman.
(now Assoc. the Directors Office, Luxembourg. Swiss Bar Assoc. member also)*addition
Fabio Oetterli, director, Baer Select Mgmt, Cayman. Director, Bank Julius Baer & Co AG
In 2008 Julius Baer Group assets under management was 400 billion CHF!
---
One of their clients whom they were advising, Noble Group of Hong Kong, wanted to set up investment companies for tax avoidance, namely Noble Investments of Zurich(SA) and Bermuda(BU) although he only related to these as NISA with Swiss resident beneficial owners 'Mr A' and 'Mr G' and NIBU with foreign beneficial owners 'Mr B' and 'Ltd Bermuda' (the associated names had been omitted from the documents). The two investment companies were set up in 2001.
Further research by the American Lucy Komisar highlighted another setup in Jersey as a front for signing contracts and also located company records in Zurich of NISA in liquidation in 2008. The following are the names of the directors taken from the documents at her site, I have added more information regarding the original members of the board.
Georg Steiger (Swi), member of board 2001
(Mr B?) Colin Barrow (Suffolk, UK), President 2001, later member of board - now leader Westminster Council and Director of Alpha Strategic / millionaire from hedge funds / benefit fraud accusations while working for councils in Suffolk and Westminster / freemason / was responsible for building Man Group into world leading hedge fund management company in the early 90's.
Richard Elman (Hong Kong) Vice President 2001, later President – Noble Group (Hong Kong) founder & CEO / Commodities billionaire
(Mr G?) Mauro Gerli (Swi), member of board 2001 – now Director of Credit Suisse / formerly Man Group also
(Mr A?) Patrick Aregger (Swi), delegate of board 2001, later VP – now Exec. Director Oppenheim Landert Family Office AG / formerly Man Group also
Jeffrey Mark Alam (Hong Kong), later member of board.
Thomas Gross (Swi), later member of board
Daniel Holenstein, (Swi) later member of board
Ernst & Young (Zurich), were the auditors from 2001.
Also revealed were other details including their involvement in a drug running and money laundering operation in Mexico and details of a US citizen who had lost millions even though he had instructed his account managers to cover the eventuality of such.
This is just a snapshot of what was going on with regards to Baer Group and their clients, the truth goes far deeper, the web of deceit and corruption goes on. Hopefully Wikileaks will give full exposure of the recent files for all to see, although I fear a deal may already have been made.
sources (with thanks)
Wikileaks
thekomisarscoop.com
The Independent
The Guardian
cbarrow.com
nutsville.com
linkedin.com
businessweek.com
---
Anonymous the movement
A collection of individuals and free thinkers
Anonymity is your greatest weapon
As nobody knows who you really are
Be true to yourself and walk free
