The following source for the information in Item 1. comes from a person in banking in Switzerland.
1. The Swiss banks have a lot of money invested by people who have a great deal of money and who want to avoid taxes in the U.S. The IRS and the U.S. Government try to intimidate the Swiss so that they can get information. Because Switzerland has money in the United States, the U.S. has some influence on this country. The U.S. tries to get the Swiss banks not to give money that is banked with them back to the parties concerned. The U.S. says that if you don’t keep the money of these people and not give it back, we won’t give back the money we have of yours.
There seems to be a regular proceedure whereby the U.S. can interfere with money that the Swiss banks take care of for Americans. It seems like a regular proceedure. Therefore, Peoples Temple doesn’t feel comfortable having money in Swiss Banks or British Banks. Peoples Temples has heard from reliable people that you just can’t trust Swiss Banks to keep a secret. In fact, one example involves someone that our attorney, Charles Garry, was helping out, a socialist. This man left his money in a South American socialist country. (We don’t know the name of the country). But nevertheless when the United States got into the act, this country would not give this man back his money. The U.S. obviously doesn’t like socialism and had put pressure on this country and had been effective. The person had a criminal charge against him and though there was no evidence he was guilty and the charge had not been proven, he still could not get his money.
2. Quote from the Book YOUR SWISS BANK BOOK by Robert Kinsman “U.S. and Switzerland signed a treaty on mutual assistance in criminal matters on May 26, 1973. It was apparently ratified by the U.S. Senate on January 1975. It is expected that most requests for assistance under this treaty will he undertaken at the request of the two countries’ Departments of Justice.”(More detailed information on this subject can be found in the above book.)
ALSO, in the book is the following:
“The act’s ostensible purpose is to trace illegal and principally underworld money flows where crimes are suspected. Many people concerned with civil liberties believe it could be used far more extensively against citizens than simply on a Mafia or tax-dodging money hunt.”
3. We were told by a very reliable person – a general practitioner, that if it can be used against ordinary citizens – how much more ran it be used against dissenters, Marxist-Leninists and Socialists. Another inference which leads one to be concerned over the discretion maintained for dissenters is found in Harry Brown’s book, THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SWISS BANKS which defines the scope of the assistance treaty between the U.S. and Switzerland. Although Brown plays down the significance of the treaty, he does mention that political bodies, business organizations, and labor unions are within the scope of the treaty and reliable information shows that in practice you don’t need the treaty – just pressure will cause people to reveal things. Attorneys or people in the profession have said that active organizations may even be subject to certain kinds of frameups which are considered by the authorities in Switzerland to permit disclosure. Various institutional methods could be used as a pretext to freeze funds.