Swiss Banks Closed Accounts Without Clients’ Knowledge
Newly uncovered records showed Monday that Swiss banks, already in trouble over the lost money of Jewish Holocaust victims, closed thousands of bank accounts without holders’ knowledge after World War II.
The records, discovered in cantonal archives in the city of Lausanne, show the names of account holders and their savings, worth millions of dollars at current values, which may open the way to fresh claims against Swiss banks.
The Swiss banks, the world’s most secretive, have repeatedly stated that they were missing many, if not all, of their old documents.
But the records belonging to the Credit Foncier Vaudois Bank in Lausanne list thousands of people, mainly Swiss but also many foreigners, along with their account numbers, their towns and the times of their first deposits.
They included an Armenian named Charles Doctorian who had opened an account in 1931 worth $70,000 at today’s value, and Octave Weber with an account dating from 1932 worth nearly $10,000 today.
Edward Fagan, one of the main lawyers in a $20-billion U.S. lawsuit filed against Swiss banks by the heirs of Holocaust victims, said the lists will provide a road map to where the money went.
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