(Reuters) -
Browsing glossy brochures in search of an exotic and relaxing summer holiday is
the norm for Swiss private bankers at this time of year.
But many
will be going no further than the Alps, fretting that Switzerland's tax
disputes with the United States and other nations could leave them open to
arrest and extradition if they leave the country and are suspected of aiding
tax cheats.
Even
secretaries working on U.S. accounts at the banks are reckoned to be at risk,
while one banker rang an advice hotline because he was worried about nipping
over the French border to buy groceries.
All this
comes as Switzerland negotiates to get U.S. probes against 11 banks dropped in
return for payment of fines and the transfer of names of thousands of U.S.
clients. It also wants a deal to shield the rest of its 300 or so banks from
prosecution.
Several
Swiss bank employees have been arrested or indicted in the U.S. since the
long-running tax dispute broke.
Banks
including HSBC and Credit Suisse have given about 10,000 employee names to U.S.
authorities in an attempt to avoid the fate of private bank Wegelin, which
broke up in January under threat of indictment, bank employees and lawyers
said.
A middle
office worker, who attended a Geneva advice seminar organized by The
Association of Swiss Bank Employees (SBPV), and whose bank sent her name to
U.S. authorities, cancelled plans to attend a school reunion in the States in
July.
"I
recently went to London but I had my radar on the whole time. I am very
uncomfortable when I travel," she said.
Former UBS
banker Renzo Gadola, who received five months' probation after co-operating
with U.S. authorities, and Credit Suisse's Christos Bagios, yet to be charged
since his January 2011 arrest, are among Swiss bank staff to have been arrested
in the States.
"Partners
of the bank prefer to spend their holidays in Switzerland," said a
spokeswoman for Wegelin, which is contesting summons to face U.S. criminal
charges that it conspired to help wealthy Americans evade taxes.
The SBPV
set up a hotline this month and organized events in Geneva and Zurich to advise
bankers about overseas travel.
Rudolf
Wyss, former deputy director of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice, told
Geneva-based bankers that if they had advised clients on U.S. soil or taken on
a U.S. client from Swiss bank UBS, they should cancel all travel plans.
"If
the banker goes to the States there is a real risk of arrest. I would advise
not to leave Switzerland," he told a tense SBPV meeting in Geneva on
Tuesday.
"If
there is an international arrest warrant you could be arrested, for instance,
in France or Italy and then extradited to the States."
And
secretaries working on U.S. accounts could be summoned as witnesses if they
travel to the States, he added.
An SBPV
official said it has received several phone calls a day on the travel hotline,
adding one member was even worried enough to call about crossing the French
border for groceries.
In January,
a finance ministry spokesman said Swiss banks had handed tens of thousands of
pages of data to U.S. authorities, including names of client advisers, as part
of an effort to reach a deal over the dispute.
And Swiss
finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf remains hopeful of a deal before
November's U.S. presidential elections.
WARNED OFF
Yet some
bankers have also been warned off going to Germany, where a deal to tax
undeclared assets and shield banks from prosecution has yet to be ratified.
One asset
manager said he uses a small family car for trips to Germany to avoid detection
as a financial adviser.
Even banks
not targeted by foreign tax probes have advised employees to think carefully
before travelling.
"We
have asked them to let us know if they are going to the United States because
we do not want to risk them running into a situation," said Bernard
Kobler, CEO of Luzerner Kantonalbank.
One
Geneva-based private banker who requested anonymity said bankers holidaying
abroad should not carry client documentation, to avoid being accused of
conducting business.
"Bankers
are going for chartered holidays to avoid the risk of being accused of looking
for business while they are on holiday," said the chief executive of
another Geneva-based private bank, who also asked not to be quoted by name.
"In
December, I visited my wife and daughter in America and I told immigration I
was a mortgage broker - I did not say banker," joked Pierin Vincenz, chief
executive of Swiss cooperative bank Raiffeisen at a recent conference in
Zurich.
Bankers who
really can't go without sea and sun could choose from such places such as
Tunisia, the Maldives or Vanuatu, where there is no extradition treaty with the
U.S. - though to be truly safe, they must ensure the flight does not involve a
stopover in countries with U.S. treaties.
(Additional
reporting by Emma Thomasson, Katharina Bart and Rupert Pretterklieber; Editing
by David Hulmes)
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