After serious allegations by the American Helsinki Commission, the Basel corruption expert Mark Pieth calls on the federal government to revise the lawyer and money laundering laws again. The problem is that oligarchs have hidden assets in Switzerland. The concealment takes place via letterbox companies in the offshore business and lawyers who are not required to provide information, Pieth said in an interview with Radio SRF on Friday morning.
The renewed revision of the Lawyers and Money Laundering Act was already discussed in March 2021, but was then rejected. That was clearly a mistake, as it now turns out.
The reaction of Federal President Ignazio Cassis’ Foreign Ministry shows that politics is thin-skinned. Cassis had strongly rejected criticism that the Swiss judiciary had been corrupted by the Russians and that it was a leading aide to Vladimir Putin, to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
It’s about the truth, said Pieth. And the allegation of corruption is not so easy to dismiss. The Office of the Attorney General is likely to be targeted when it comes to mutual legal assistance proceedings between Switzerland and the USA. The pressure on Switzerland will increase.
The Basel lawyer Pieth is an independent expert of the Helsinki Commission. The Commission has been active for 45 years. It has 54 nationals as a member and is committed to security and cooperation. However, it is little known in the United States.
Bild: Keystone