As if he were reading my mind, Jean Jacques said, “Mr. Kaminsky has always been quick to offer his opinion on matters such as these. I find that rather odd, considering he has nothing to gain or lose on your decision. He has already been paid a small finder’s fee just for bringing you here. Whether or not you choose to do business with Union Banc does not bear on Mr. Kaminsky’s pocketbook one way or the other.”
I nodded in understanding. I found it interesting that Saurel didn’t speak in wishes. He had a complete command of the English language, idioms and all.
Saurel plowed on: “But to answer your question, the only way the Swiss government would cooperate with the U.S. government would be if the alleged crime was also a crime in Switzerland. For example, in Switzerland, there is no law regarding tax evasion. So if we were to receive a request from the United States government regarding such a matter, we would not cooperate with them.”
“Mr. Saurel is entirely correct,” said the bank’s vice president, a thin little Frog with spectacles, who went by the name of Pierre something or other. “We have no great affection for your government. You would please not take offense at this. But the fact remains that we would cooperate only if the alleged crime is a penal offense, or, as you would say it, a felony.”
Then a second Pierre chimed in, although this one was younger and was bald as a cue ball. He said, “You would find that the Swiss penal code is far more liberal than that of your own country. Many of your felonies are not considered felonies in Switzerland.”
Christ almighty! The word felonywas enough to send a shiver down my spine. In fact, it was already obvious that there were huge problems with my preconceived notion of using Switzerland as a rathole…unless, of course…well…could ratholes be legal in Switzerland? I ran the possibility through my mind. No, I strongly doubted it, but I would have to inquire about it when I met with Saurel in private. I smiled and said, “Well, I’m really not concerned about that sort of thing, because I have absolutely no intention of breaking any U.S. laws.” That was a bold-faced lie. But I loved the way it sounded. Who cared that it was a boatload of crap? For some inexplicable reason it still made me feel more at ease about being in Switzerland. I soldiered on: “And when I say that, I speak for Danny as well. You see, our sole reason for wanting to have money in Switzerland is for asset protection. My primary concern is that in my line of work there exists a great likelihood of getting sued—wrongfully, I might add. But either way what I’d like to know—or, to put it more bluntly, what’s most important to me—is that under no circumstances will you turn any of my money over to a U.S. citizen or, for that matter, any person on the planet who happens to get a civil judgment against me.”
Saurel smiled. “Not only would we never do that,” he mused, “but we don’t even recognize anything that is—as you say—civil. Even if we were to get a subpoena from your Securities and Exchange Commission—which is a civil regulatory body—we would not cooperate with them under any circumstances.” Then, as an afterthought, he added, “And that would be even if the alleged offense is a felony under Swiss law.” He nodded to drive his point home. “Even then we would still not cooperate!” He smiled a conspirator’s smile.
I nodded approvingly and then looked around the room. Everyone seemed to be pleased with the way things were going, everyone except me. I couldn’t have been more turned off. Saurel’s last comment had struck a nerve with me, sending my brain into overdrive. The simple fact was that if the Swiss government refused to cooperate with an SEC investigation, then the SEC would have no choice but to refer their request over to the U.S. Attorney’s office for a criminal investigation. Talk about being the agent of your own demise!
I began playing out possible scenarios in my mind. Ninety percent of all SEC cases were settled at the civil level. It was only when the SEC felt something overly egregious was going on that they referred the case to the FBI for criminal investigation. But if the SEC couldn’t run their investigation—if they were stonewalled by the Swiss—how could they decide what was egregious and what was not? In truth, much of what I was doing wasn’t all that terrible, was it?
I took a deep breath and said, “Well, it all sounds reasonable to me, but I wonder how the U.S. government would even know where to look—meaning how would they know which Swiss bank to send a subpoena to? None of the accounts have names; they’re just numbered. So unless someone tipped them off”—I resisted the urge to look at Kaminsky—“as to where you were keeping your money, or unless you were careless enough to leave a paper trail of some sort, then how would they even know where to start? Do they have to guess your account number? There must be a thousand banks in Switzerland, and each one of them probably has a hundred thousand accounts. That’s millions of accounts, all with different account numbers. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack. It would be impossible.” I looked directly into Saurel’s dark eyes.
After a few moments of silence, Saurel replied, “That is another excellent question. But to answer, I would ask you to oblige me the opportunity to give you a small lesson in Swiss banking history.”
This was getting good. The importance of understanding the implications of the past was exactly what Al Abrams had drilled into my head during all those early-morning breakfast meetings. I nodded and said, “Please do. I’m actually fascinated with history, especially when it pertains to a situation like this, where I’m contemplating doing business in unfamiliar territory.”
Saurel smiled and said, “The whole notion of numbered accounts is somewhat misleading. While it’s true that all Swiss banks offer our clients this option—as a means of maintaining their privacy—each account is tied to a name, which is kept on record at the bank.”
With that statement my heart sank. Saurel continued, “Many years ago, before World War Two, that was not the case. You see, back then it was standard practice among Swiss bankers to open an account without a name being attached to it. Everything was based on personal relationships and a handshake. Many of these accounts were held in the names of corporations. But unlike corporations in the United States, these were bearer corporations, which, again, had no name attached to them. In other words, whoever was the actual bearer of the corporation’s physical stock certificates would be deemed the rightful owner.
“But then came Adolf Hitler and the despicable Nazis. This is a very sad chapter in our history and one that we are not particularly proud of. We did our best to help as many of our Jewish clients as we possibly could, but in the end I would say that we did not help enough. As you know, Mr. Belfort, I am French, but I think I speak for every man in this room when I say that we wish we had done more.” With that, he paused and nodded his head solemnly.
Every man in the room, including the court jester himself, Kaminsky, a Jew in his own right, nodded in sympathy. I assumed that everyone knew that Danny and I were both Jewish, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Saurel had said these things for our benefit. Or had he really meant what he’d said? Either way, before he began speaking I had already gone ten steps ahead and knew exactly where he was going next. The simple fact was that before Hitler was able to sweep through Europe and round up six million Jews and exterminate them in the gas chambers, many were able to move their money into Switzerland. They had seen the handwriting on the wall back in the early thirties, when the Nazis were first coming to power. But smuggling out their money had proved to be much easier than smuggling out themselves. Virtually every country in Europe, with the exception of Denmark, denied millions of desperate Jews safe haven within their borders. Most of these countries had cut secret deals with Hitler, agreeing to turn over their Jewish populations if Hitler agreed not to attack. These were agreements that Hitler quickly reneged on, once he had all the Jews safely tucked away in concentration camps. And as country after country fell to the Nazis, the Jews ran out of places to hide. How very ironic it was that Switzerland had been so quick to accept Jewish money yet so reluctant to accept Jewish souls.