Bradley Birkenfeld was one of the few Americans who held the keys to the kingdom. A Boston-born, high-flying, cross-border banker at Switzerland’s premier financial institution, UBS, he had access to the kind of secret account information that American law enforcement had only dreamed of through all the decades that terrorists, dictators, arms dealers, mafia dons and wealthy tax cheats had hidden behind the fortress of secrecy that Swiss banking promised.
Subterranean bomb-proof vaults and state-of-the-art security systems are the superficial trappings of Swiss banking and its culture of secrecy, but the cornerstone of protection for its clients is the numbered account system that offers all but foolproof privacy. Or so they thought.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by JayLinPhrank.
I always thought that Swiss bank accounts were just like normal bank accounts (i.e. I didn't know they went to such great lengths to cover their clienteles identities); the only difference being that, since its in a foreign country, another country had no right to get information about the accounts.
How naive I am.
Still, a bit stupid of them to go through all those security measures only to simply print out all the information on small cards, which can very easily be displaced or stolen. They trust all their employees too much.
This person just saved the governments of the world and possible Trillion dollars and HE has to call HIMSELF a hero?