Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Pierre Helg, has disclosed that the $505 million looted away by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha was lodged in 41 Swiss banks.
He also vowed that there would no longer be any hiding place in his country for unrepentant corrupt Nigerian leaders, who stashed away their nation's funds in foreign accounts.
He expressed the Swiss Government's resolve to support President Olusegun Obasanjo's hand over to non-corrupt person.
Helg who spoke in Abuja on the Update on Swiss Banking System said the Swiss Government "was ever willing and ready to collaborate with the Federal Government and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to fish out such dubious leaders and repatriate the looted monies back to the country."
The Swiss Government had repatriated a total of $505 million stolen by the late head of state, comprising $461.3 million and $44.1 million by last year.
According to him, "in April 2007, Nigeria will experience the first power shift ever, between two civilian administrations. And very accurately, the Nigerian public opinion has opted for a leadership demarcated from corruption.
"As the EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and now the Federal Inland Revenue Service are locally taking serious moves to fish out indelicate contestants, we are also determined to assure Nigerians that there will be no hiding place for impenitent corrupt leaders," he assured.
Helg disclosed that the Swiss authorities imposed heavy sanctions on the 41 banks that were discovered to be keeping the looted $505 million in their vaults, in addition to the firing of top officials of the banks by their board.
The ambassador stressed that "we are always ready to cooperate and bring back looted funds. We have huge banks' assets in Switzerland amounting to $4 trillion; so we don't need these other tainted funds, which amount to a few billion dollars.
"You must however realize that there are a lot of difficulties like legal issues in repatriation of these funds. We never compromised any banking practice unless the court confirms that the bank was wrong.
"If the EFCC tells us it has identified someone who is a crook and such person lodges the money in Switzerland , we would freeze such money and immediately open procedure for repatriation of the money."
Helg however argued that the Swiss Government would not determine a corrupt person or crook for Nigeria as it was not its responsibility.
He believed that "there must be a request from the home government to us for us to take action," pointing out that "like in the case of Abacha loot, we got a report from the Nigerian Government that Abacha loot had been traced to some banks in Switzerland . We cooperated and four lawyers worked on the report," he disclosed.
Nevertheless, he expressed the imperative of fighting crime in the financial sector because of its negative effect on value, employment and fiscal revenues.
He posited that banking secrecy could only be protected through relentless and effective efforts to combat crime.
Helg pointed out that, "Swiss laws are regularly adapted to the many different changes that take place in both the national and international context, particularly as far as money laundering and combating corruption are concerned", adding that "Switzerland would like to see all countries meet the same high standards and favours independent assessments to make sure they continue to do so efficiently."
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