Wealthy Americans who hide assets in Swiss bank are dirt

There’s a reason the Swiss banker is often a main character in spy novels: secrecy. The banking system in Switzerland has been hidden from public view since the 1930s, which is why it has attracted the world’s leading crooks, corrupt rulers, spoiled brats with obscene inheritances and businessmen and women with larceny in their hearts.

Their goal is simply to hide their wealth from preying eyes — of spouses, family, friends, business partners and, most of all, the tax man.

And the Swiss banking system has paid off for them — in spades. Until now.

A massive cache of data that was taken by a computer experts working in HSBC’s office in Geneva several years ago and shared with French authorities is now in the hands of Le Monde, the French daily newspaper, The Guardian of Britain, CBS’s “60 Minutes” and Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

How revealing is the data? Consider this: Some 30,000 accounts with $120 billion in them have been blown wide open.

Almost 3,000 clients of the Swiss operation of HSBC, the world’s second largest bank, are connected to the U.S.

The U.S. government — the Internal Revenue Service, in particular — has had these records since 2010, and while there have been convictions of Americans who sent their money overseas to avoid paying taxes, the crackdown has been muted at best.

Now, however, with the press in possession of the secrets that these Americans have worked so hard to protect, the federal government will be forced to publicly explain what it has been doing to not only get the taxes, penalties and interest due but also to go after the account holders criminally.

The Guardian newspaper has done extensive reporting on this issue, and what it has revealed should cause every honest, patriotic, tax-paying American to be outraged.

The Guardian reviewed the list of American clients with accounts in HSBC’s private Swiss bank, and reported the following:

“They include prominent film directors, sports stars, hedge fund managers, retail magnates and major political donors. The HSBC files provide no indication as to whether U.S. clients declared their assets to the IRS.”

‘Major political donors’

While all the individuals are deserving of the public’s scorn if they did, indeed, send their money abroad to escape paying taxes, the one group that is most troubling is “major political donors.”

With money now the leading determinant of elections, there is every reason for concern that the politicians in Washington will attempt to sweep this issue under the rug, or at the very least protect their campaign contributors — if they are foreign bank-account holders.

Given that, news organizations in possession of the treasure trove of information about HSBC’s operation in Switzerland should commit to making all of it public.

On Sunday, CBS’s “60 Minutes” news magazine had a segment about how HSBC’s Swiss banking operation enabled its clients to remain anonymous and even hide their assets.

The bank colluded with some clients to conceal undeclared “black” accounts from domestic tax authorities across the world and provided services to international criminals and other high-risk individuals, The Guardian reported.

If nothing else, the public revelation about Americans parking their money overseas should strengthen President Barack Obama’s proposal to impose a mandatory tax on U.S. companies’ earnings held overseas.