For decades, Switzerland’s opaque banking system has been a haven for millionaire dictators of emerging nations.
However, under new laws soon to be passed, cash hoarded away by corrupt politicians will be seized by Swiss officials and redistributed to aid agencies.
As soon as the law is passed, at least 4.6 million held in Swiss bank accounts by former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, will go to aid agencies involved in rebuilding the earthquake-hit country.
“With the law, cases such as ... Duvalier will not happen again,” Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, was quoted as saying by AP.
Early this year, a Swiss court ruled that Duvalier’s cash must be distributed back to his family, because of a legal loophole. However, when the earthquake struck the country 12 hours after the ruling, Swiss officials rushed through a decree which blocked the transfer of the funds until the new legislation was passed.
Some of the world’s most authoritarian rulers have in the past been drawn to Switzerland’s secrecy laws to bank their private fortunes in Geneva.
In a bid to counter the growing problem, the country introduced strict money-laundering rules and laws on criminal assets. The new laws have worked to return $1.56 billion once belonging to allegedly corrupt politicians, back to the country of origin.
Among those whose assets have been seized include former Philippine’s president Ferdinand Marcos, Nigeria’s ex-ruler Sani Abacha and the former head of Peru’s secret service Vladimiro Montesinos.
However, in some cases, Switzerland has been blocked from returning the money because the country of origin does not have a legal system that can successfully prosecute past leaders.
The new legislation, which is soon to go before the country’s Parliament, will close that loophole and make it easier to redistribute the funds to aid agencies.
“Experience has shown that this system reaches its limits when the failure of national legal systems means that countries are unable to carry out national criminal proceedings,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Haiti made its first claim for Duvalier’s funds in 1986, shortly after his deposition. However the money was frozen because Haiti was not pursuing criminal action against the former leader.
The government statement said that officials hope “this new act can enter into force rapidly so that a solution to the issue of the Duvalier assets can be found as soon as possible.”
