A drop in the ocean
Some 300 Swiss-based individuals, 20 banks and dozens of lawyers and financial advisors are set to be named in a global tax evasion "bust". Bad news? Not necessarily, say Swiss authorities.
The fact is that Swiss entities represent just 0.05% of the global agents soon to be revealed as members of an international web of tax abuse.
The Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has a 260 gigabyte haul of data implicating 122,000 trusts and other shady structures set up by 12,000 financial intermediaries in 140 countries.
By comparison, the Swiss connection is small fry. “It shows that Switzerland is not the centre of evil in the financial world,” Mario Tuor, spokesman for the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters, told swissinfo.ch.
Matthew Allen, swissinfo.ch
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