On Thursday, May 26th, the Geneva chapter members, in all solemnity, were eager to listen to Claude NICATI, Deputy State Prosecutor of the Swiss Confederation.

  

  Switzerland Confronted with Organized Criminality" was the subject-matter of his presentation. More wrongly than rightly, because of the success of our banking system, our country has been labelled as money launderess. However,  our fight against criminality and money laundering is as strong as it is in all other countries, where organized criminality and corruption prevail.

  

When we speak of organized criminality, we mean a violent gang indulging in diverse illegal traffic such as drugs, human beings etc. Their aim  is to "launder" the income of these illegal operations. Conversely, terrorism makes use of legal monies to finance violent operations such as bomb attacks in view of imposing an ideal; in which case, they "blacken" that money. Our job is very complex: not only should we prove that a criminal act has been accomplished, but we should also bring testimony that this act is directly linked to the money used. We have to demonstrate that the actors (of such a laundry or blackening) knew that these acts, they were ready to commit, were illegal. Generally, this sort of act implicates several countries and we therefore depend upon the collaboration of foreign authorities to obtain necessary proof.

  

Of course, organized crime and corruption exists as much in Switzerland as in any other country. Our neutrality does not protect us from terrorism. Geneva and its international organizations could be a potential target for such acts. In 2004, fifty-two proceedings were pending judgement for complex cases of organized criminality, six of which related to terrorism.

  

As a matter of fact, the Swiss economic world often blames the federal authorities for over-zealousness, compared to competitive financial places such as London or the US, where their authorities tend to ignore certain practices, or collaborate softly, when investigations concern them directly.  It is in fact very frustrating to see that these countries are reluctant to play the game when their own interests are concerned. Swiss banks do not wish to have clients liable to harm their image as well as that of the Swiss marketplace as a whole. It is therefore important to track down laundered money, even if this means more administrative paperwork.