Swiss Bank Account: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (clean up) |
No edit summary |
||
| (2 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 4:
In real life, the usefulness of these numbered accounts is limited, due to how hard it is to get one nowadays... The Swiss, well aware of their banks' increasing reputation as havens for no-good-niks (not particularly helped by their willingness to stash Nazi Gold, though they were originally formed to help people ''hide'' money from the Gestapo), require numerous references and a general OK from the person's country of origin.
[[Useful Notes|To be noted]]: truly ''anonymous'' bank accounts are a thing of fiction. Even if protected by a code number, the identity of the client (and usually the source of the funds as well) is known by the chairman and high-ranking personnel of the bank, either in Switzerland or other tax havens. Money laundering and stashing of dubious funds are the province of [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|professional accountants and economists]], who know [[Honest John's Dealership|how to give a decent face]] to the business they manage. The structures are usually fairly complex and involve creating a string of shell corporations with nominee directors in various friendly jurisdictions; those corporations in turn hold bank accounts or other assets. A Swiss bank account alone, in your own name, provides little. Don't try to [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|just approach a bank]] with a [[Briefcase Full of Money]] and no plausible story and expect it to work.<ref>Many countries have laws that require the reporting of all deposits of certain amounts (in the US, it's $10,000) to the government anyway</ref>
In more recent stories, an account in an offshore tax haven, such as the Cayman Islands, may be substituted.
Line 54:
** 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.
* ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)||Mission Impossible]]'': In "the Council" episode, the mobsters are using a swiss bank account.
* 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]]s 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...
{{quote|'''Kay''': ''[softly to Murphy]'' Don't worry. I'll have this money in my Cayman Islands account before we're within ''miles'' of an altar.}}
** Because [[Status Quo Is God]] the guy divorces her and takes back the money. However Kay managed to keep [[Ben Stein]] as her man servant.
* The unsophisticated drug lord Marlo Stanfield from ''[[The Wire]]'' has to be introduced to this trope (Antillean off-shore version) and even then he decides to visit the bank in person to verify that his money is actually there.
Line 99:
[[Category:Money Tropes]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Bank and Financial Tropes]]
| |||