Mrs. Romney’s trust had a $3M bank account at UBS. Closed after DOJ crackdown on tax evaders [View all]

[TalkingDog]

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/romneys-wife-had-3-million-in-ubs-unit-closed-for-helping-us-citizens-evade-taxes.html

It appears that the Romneys kept this $3 million offshore until it was clear the secrecy gig was up (note it is not clear that their account was with the unit that was targeted in the probe). Even though it is pretty unlikely that they were among the customers whose names were turned over to the US ($3 million is chump change in private banking), Swiss accounts were no longer assured of safety.

snip:

The problem is that the story does not add up. Diversification? Huh? You don’t diversify by putting money in a no-yielding cash account in Switzerland; you can hold cash as an asset class far more simply and at better returns pretty much any other way. The account earned a grand total $1.718, or .06%, in 2010; low returns were the usual tradeoff for vaunted Swiss secrecy. It might be that this $3 million was excess cash targeted for opportunistic investments and was never deployed.

So you have to assume that the Romneys did want the secrecy. After all, they were paying for it with terrible returns on their money. And if not for tax reasons, then why?