Swiss Bank Account: Difference between revisions

 

== Comic Books ==

* In ''[[Asterix]] in Switzerland'', Petitsuix opens a Helvetian bank account and stashes Asterix and Obelix in a safe to hide them from the Romans. They get hungry in the middle of the night and, since the safe wasn't meant to be opened from inside, Obelix simply kicks the door off its hinges. The bank's owner, Zurix, has the Gauls moved to someone else's safe. That someone else turns out to be the Roman centurion who comes searching for the Gauls, finds the broken safe and questions the bank's security.

 

 

== Film ==

* ''The Spanish Prisoner''.

{{quote| '''Jimmy Dell:''' You now have a Swiss bank account if anybody asks. Credit Nationale Du Geneve, code name 'PADDY'. Lavish awkward gesture. All of fifteen Swiss Francs in it, but if you ever want to impress anybody, they can find out you have a Swiss account. But, Swiss law prohibits the bank from revealing the balance. Thus are all men made equal.}}

* There's one in ''Smiley's People''.

* ''The Order''. The character Ben Nur has one.

* A group of mercenaries in the 1985 comedy ''[[Water]]'':

{{quote| '''French agent:''' This is a dangerous mission, and some of you will die. But remember, in a world gone mad, you will die for a principle that you all hold close to your heart. Money!<br />

'''Mercenaries:''' Viva franc! Viva deutschmark! Viva dollar! Viva numbered bank account in Switzerland! }}

* In the film ''Samurai Cop'', the villian Fujiyama is accused of being a 'death merchant' who deposits his vast riches into a Swiss account

 

 

== Literature ==

* [[Robert Ludlum]], again, plays with the lazy version of the trope in ''The Ostermann Weekend''. The protagonist discovers that a man who may be a foreign spy has a Swiss bank account, and considers this to be Evidence, but it turns out that the man is innocent, and his response to being accused of having a Swiss bank account is basically, "Yes, I do. What's your point?"

* In [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''[[Rainbow Six]]'', Dmitri Popov sets up a Swiss Bank Account for the terrorists he's hired, as a secure way to transfer their payment to them. Once it becomes obvious that they're going to fail at the mission, he transfers all the money to an account he set up for himself.

** In ''Clear And Present Danger'', the mystique of this trope is bluntly deconstructed, not only because the Cartel having their drug accounts in Swiss banks does nothing to protect them from seizure once their illegality is discovered, but it's explicitly pointed out the only thing that makes the banks more secure is that fact the countries they reside in weren't invaded as much, giving the illusion of security.

** Michael's friend Barry specializes in setting those up and using them to launder money for criminals and spies.

** In one episode a government agent is trying to bully Michael so he has Barry set up an offshore account in the agent's name. They then move the same few thousand dollars in and out of the account repeatedly to make it seem like the agent is receiving payoffs through the account. Michael then blackmails the agent with this to have him back off.

* In ''[[Human Target]]'' Season 2 premiere Ilsa (a a good person) has a vault in a Swiss bank which can only be entered with retina scans of both Ilsa and her late husband; the bad guy uses her (in a hostage situation) and [[Borrowed Biometric Bypass|her dead husband's eyeball, removed from his body]] to get in to steal their billions. In another episode she transfers a couple mil from her Swiss bank to a local bank specifically in order to draw out some [[Dirty Cop|Dirty Cops]] who were looking for her; in that same episode the main bad guy has an offshore bank account in Barbados where he stores his ill-gotten gains.

* An episode of ''[[Murphy Brown]]'' had a millionaire fall in love with Murphy and shower her with expensive gifts to try to get her to marry him, until he flat out tries to bribe her with a large check. She says no, the guy finally relents...and proposes to Kay, who immediately accepts. Murphy is horrified and calls Kay out on this...

 

== Video Games ==

* ''Druglord'': The player-character's bank is supposed to be a Swiss bank.

* In the game ''[[Tropico]]'', one of the scoring metrics is how much money you can embezzle into your Swiss bank account.