Very often the people or group in question have Swiss bank accounts. Don't these banks have a duty to protect their clients' funds?
2007-10-30 14:34:01 · 11 answers · asked by Dr D 7 in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
Here's a link to a related story
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20071030/ts_csm/afinancing
2007-10-30 14:34:25 · update #1
They can technically freeze only US-dollar denominated assets.
The reality of modern financial system is that 'money' actually has neither value nor meaning since Bretton-Woods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system
If you ask someone (or yourself) what exactly is 'one dollar' you'll soon discover that there is no meaningful answer.
Most of 'money' exist only as bank records of clients' accounts. The banks in turn have clearing accounts at national Central Bank.
Central Bank (in USA called Federal Reserve system) is the only origin of national currency and it also clears inter-bank transactions. For this reason no inter-bank transaction can be cleared unless Federal Reserve agrees to conduct the transaction. In additon, if banks arrange to clear frozen funds through their mutual corespondent accounts, the Central Bank can simply terminate their clearing acconts, making it impossible for the banks to operate in particular national currency.
The situation is basically that banks only act as agents of their clients, while ultimately all 'money' reside inside safes (or, more, accurately computers) of Central Banks.
http://wfhummel.cnchost.com/fedoverview.html
2007-10-31 06:01:57 · answer #1 · answered by Alexander 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
What we are seeing now's only the top of the ice burg. practice for the worst case senario, because of the fact that's coming. Obama is the hot captian on the substantial.... this deliver is going down. Why do you think of the elites are throwing funds at their pals in the type of "bailouts". stick to the funds and institutions. The final act of an out going government is to loot the national treasury.
2016-12-30 11:20:34 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The US is able to 'freeze' assets in US financial institutions, and forbid Americans from doing business with the targetted individual or organization. That's about it. But, it can have a ripple effect in other countries that want to stay in the US's good graces, or who don't want to be seen as supporting terrorism.
Note that because of constitutional protections, it's easier to 'freeze' assets than to confiscate them - which is probably what many other nations would do under similar circumstances.
2007-10-30 14:42:24 · answer #3 · answered by B.Kevorkian 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
As I understand it, this sort of thing is usually handled through cooperation between international law-enforcement agencies. That is, if US law-enforcement people have evidence that money from illegal activities is flowing into one of these accounts, they can send that to the other country's law-enforcement people with a request that the funds be frozen. I don't know off-hand, but I'd expect that in most cases these requests would be complied with as a routine measure. After all, you want people to cooperate with you in the reciprocal case.
2007-10-30 17:30:58 · answer #4 · answered by Scarlet Manuka 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I heard the swiss banks are not the place to store you money stash.
True they do, but when crime is involved, I believe it to be a different story.
2007-10-30 14:42:42 · answer #5 · answered by Doesntstayinvegas.com 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Liquid nitrogen
2007-10-30 14:38:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 3⤋
Que Que?
2007-10-30 15:30:01 · answer #7 · answered by jokey89 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
May be in the same manner that William Jefferson froze his $90k.
2007-10-30 14:40:28 · answer #8 · answered by Chi Guy 5 · 0⤊ 5⤋
Well, the take a CO2 fire extinguisher and tell you to bend over. It's all up hill from there.
2007-10-30 14:40:29 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 5⤋
Freezing someone's *****t's?
Don't get me started!
2007-10-30 14:57:27 · answer #10 · answered by Yahoo! 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋