In this Global Post article, American whistle blower Bradley Birkenfeld exposes the secrets and scandals behind the legendary secrecy of Swiss banking.
It’s the inner sanctum of Swiss banking — the heavily-guarded nexus between numbered Swiss bank accounts and their owner’s good names — and it’s the rare American that is allowed entry.
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.
Telling Swiss Secrets: A Banker’s Betrayal (Thanks for the tip, Robert!)
Post by John from Destiny Survival
I’m from the old school. I’m a middle aged man from a rural
background, who’s been around for some time before the Internet,
blogging, Twitter, ad nauseam. People today have no sense of what it
means to keep things private. For example, teens don’t have the sense
to know how serious sexting is. Not until they’re fined or jailed will
they get a clue.
But why fine or jail them? Everything else is out in the open, isn’t
it? What’s the big deal?
Sorry, but I don’t operate that way.
Now, to tell you just a little about my own prepping. I do have a
couple of water filtration devices because water’s extremely
important. We’ve got a little storage food set by, but not nearly
enough. Can there ever be? If a mouth breathing knuckle dragger comes
down my driveway, he’ll be met with an unfriendly welcome, and that’s
all I’ll say about that.
So if you’re disappointed in me for not disclosing all, I know it’s
tough, but you’ll get over it.
I write regularly about survival and prepping at Destiny Survival, where some of it is based on my
own experience and some is frankly intended to get you to buy things
you need for your own prepping. But even there I don’t tell all.
I’m a firm believer in the importance of having a survival mindset.
Your best survival tool lies between your ears. Thankfully, nobody can
ever know everything you’re equipped with up there.
My advice to you? Be a prepper for your own good. Keep your mouth
shut and don’t use your keyboard to blab about what you’re doing.
You’re sure to invite trouble one of these days if you spill your guts
to the whole world… and don’t think they’re not watching.
[Editor's note: This article has been edited down for Lone Iguana. Opinions from guest writers may not reflect the opinions of Lone Iguana. Be sure to read the complete article at Destiny Survival.]
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