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UBS Chief: Clients Not Harmless Victims

August 24, 2009

By Clark Gascoigne

Clark Gascoigne is the Communications Director at Global Financial Integrity in Washington, DC.

According to UBS’s chairman, Kaspar Villiger, the bank’s tax-evading American “clients are not just harmless victims. They knew what they wanted to evade.”

It’s nice to see that the UBS chief is on the same page as the rest of the world on this point. However, according to Reuters, he also does not believe that “systematic tax evasion had been a problem in countries other than the United States.” I find it very difficult to believe that he believes this.

Disclaimer: Unless specifically stated to be the views of the Task Force, the opinions expressed on this blog are solely the opinions of the individual blogger and are not necessarily those of the Task Force on Financial Integrity & Economic Development.

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