[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 3, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5219-S5220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  VIOLATION OF SWISS BANK SECRECY LAWS

  Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the case of 
Christoph Meili. He is a heroic young Swiss bank guard, 27 years of 
age, who stumbled on a situation that was rather remarkable. It was the 
shredding this past January of historical documents at Union Bank of 
Switzerland, one of Switzerland's largest, most prestigious banks. He 
noted that these records dated during the period of the Holocaust, 
prior to and during World War II, and he knew that the Government of 
Switzerland had just passed legislation prohibiting destruction of just 
these types of records. He took a handful of these records and brought 
them to the Jewish Cultural Society. They then passed them on to the 
police--never went to the media. The records were never copied. They 
were never in any way compromised.
  For his bravery, for standing up and doing the right thing, he has 
been fired from his job. In his termination letter, Mr. Meile was told 
that although his conduct was ``classified as ethical and moral in 
certain circles,'' his actions were unjustifiable from the perspective 
of labor law.
  Can you imagine that. He saw the law being violated. He knew that 
these documents were of import, and he was fired. Here is a noble young 
man who risked everything, a humble man, a high school education, with 
a wife and two children. What happened? He is called a traitor to his 
country. His wife and children are threatened. Hundreds of letters pour 
in.
  Let me read one letter, and it is a tough letter. And I have seen 
many of these:

       Meile, you bastard. The secret numbered account won't do 
     you any good. You are a son of a bitch, a traitor to your 
     country. It will cost you your life. Your children are in 
     danger. We will kidnap them and make sure that you pay the 
     ransom with your Jewish money. We'll finish you off. We're 
     going to wipe out the entire Meile clan. Traitors like you 
     are not wanted. If you have any courage, you'll kill yourself 
     or emigrate into the promised land to your Jewish friends--to 
     Israel or the U.S. You won't live much longer in Switzerland 
     if you don't kill yourself.

  That is the kind of thing he has been subjected to. This brave, 
courageous and righteous young man finds himself terminated from 
employment, blacklisted.
  The chairman of the board of Union Bank, Mr. Studer says that he 
thinks Mr. Meili did this to get money. Now, let me say something. Mr. 
Meili did not go to the press. This information was released by the 
Union Bank and the police authorities.
  I have just recently written to the local prosecutor, and in that 
letter of May 15 I said, basically, are you still threatening to 
prosecute Mr. Meili? I ask that the full text of that letter be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

         U.S. Senate, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
           Affairs,
                                     Washington, DC, May 15, 1997.
     Mr. Peter Cosandey,
     District Attorney of the Canton Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
       Dear Mr. Cosandey: This letter concerns Mr. Christoph 
     Meili, the former bank security guard who discovered the 
     shredding of Holocaust-era documents at the Union Bank of 
     Switzerland in Zurich and who is currently being investigated 
     by your office for violation of Swiss bank secrecy laws.
       As you are probably aware Mr. Meili has recently testified 
     before the Senate Banking Committee in Washington, D.C., in 
     reference to his discovery of the shredding of valuable 
     archival documents by the Union Bank of Switzerland. He told 
     of his firing by his employer Wache A.G., even after I 
     received personal assurances from Ambassador Thomas Borer 
     that this would not take place. Mr. Meili stated that this 
     firing has left him penniless and has placed terrible 
     financial strains upon himself and his family. As you are 
     undoubtedly aware Mr. Meili has a wife and two young children 
     that he must now somehow support.
       Mr. Meili also testified of his hours of intense 
     interrogation by Swiss officials and their silence as to the 
     status of their investigation. Mr. Meili also testified that 
     Swiss officials have yet to provide him with copies of the 
     archival documents that he saved from destruction. Mr. Meili 
     also stated that he fears for his life and the life of his 
     wife and infant children. He stated that both he and the 
     members of his family have received numerous threats against 
     their lives. His children have been threatened with kidnaping 
     and he has been told that ``their ransoms could be paid from 
     monies belonging to the Jewish community.'' This is 
     unconscionable.
       He also feels that he has been ``black-listed'' by the 
     Swiss banking community and will have great difficulty in 
     securing gainful employment in Switzerland. Mr. Meili should 
     be treated as a hero not as a criminal. It is within this 
     light that I now ask you to end your harassment of Mr. Meili. 
     You do both your office, Mr. Meili and the citizens of 
     Switzerland a great injustice in continuing your present 
     course of action. The Union Bank of Switzerland should be the 
     subject of your investigation, not Mr. Meili.
       In closing, I would also be most interested in finding out 
     what action your office has taken against Mr. Erwin 
     Hagenmuller, the Archivist for the Union Bank of Switzerland 
     who ordered the shredding of archival documents even though 
     recently enacted Swiss law prohibits such willful 
     destruction. Was a report filed by the Union Bank of 
     Switzerland in reference to Mr. Hagenmuller's actions? If so, 
     could a copy of the report be forwarded to the Committee for 
     review?
           Respectfully,
                                               Alfonse M. D'Amato,
                                                         Chairman.

  Mr. D'AMATO. I did not receive a direct reply, but let me tell you 
what I did get just yesterday. I received a letter from Mr. Meile's 
attorney, Marcel Bosonnet.
  In the letter the prosecutor says, basically, that ``we intend,'' and 
I quote, ``to bring a charge'' against Mr. Meili. They are going to 
charge Mr. Meili with criminal conduct, not the bank which shredded the 
records. And they want Mr. Meili to come back to Switzerland for 
another interview. Mr. Meili's lawyer, Mr. Bosonnet, writing to a 
lawyer who is representing Mr. Meili because Mr. Meili is here in 
hiding, has advised him not to come back to Switzerland because he 
would face not only persecution but prosecution and harassment.
  Now, Mr. President, it is one thing for the Swiss Government to say, 
``Do not blame us for what took place 50 years ago'', and another thing 
to say, ``Well, what we are doing today is correct.'' I say to the 
Swiss Government and to the Swiss banks, do not shred the truth. Tell 
the truth. Mr. Meili should not be facing criminal charges for coming 
forward.
  Let me share with you, if I might, what I learned just before we 
adjourned. And, by the way, I commend my colleagues in the Senate for 
passing the bill which will give to Mr. Meili relief, a private relief 
bill which will permit him and his family to reside in this country 
legally and to be able to be gainfully employed. That legislation is 
now pending action in the House. But let me say to you that I think all 
of us were moved when we heard the testimony of Mr. Meili.
  I said to him, ``Christoph, why did you do this? Why did you take 
these documents and report and expose what was going on?''
  Do you know what he said? He said, ``Two months earlier I saw 
`Schindler's List,' and I knew that I must be doing something, and I 
could not just stand by and let this take place.''
  So I say to my colleagues in the Senate and in the House, can we do 
anything less than to ask for speedy passage of that legislation that 
will give Christoph the right to work and live here in this great 
country, to tell him that we do appreciate his standing up for truth 
and justice, and also to let the Swiss Government know in the strongest 
terms that we are not going to stand by and do business as usual. We 
are not going to allow them to harass this young man, because this 
prosecutor is way off base. If anything, he should be investigating the 
destruction of those historical documents by the Union Bank, documents 
that existed in some cases for more than 60 years. Suddenly they say 
they began to destroy them by accident. I do not believe it. It also 
raises in this Senator's mind the question of how historical documents 
that have been stored in warehouses belonging to some of the banking 
institutions mysteriously have caught on fire. I'm talking about four 
different warehouses in this country, the latest being in New Jersey, 
concerning documents that belonged to Credit Suisse.

  I wonder how it is that shredding takes place after 60 years by 
accident.

[[Page S5220]]

When a young bank guard comes forward and says, ``Look, this is not 
right,'' he, then, becomes the victim and becomes the criminal.
  What we seek is justice and a full accounting. And certainly fair 
treatment of this heroic young man.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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