The Justice Department charged that over several years UBS provided Swiss bank accounts to approximately 20,000 U.S. clients with assets of about $20 billion. About 17,000 of those clients concealed their identities and the existence of their UBS accounts from the IRS, the Justice Department alleged…. 

A Justice Department news release stated that, to avoid being tried on criminal charges, UBS agreed to stop letting U.S. clients use Swiss accounts to hide money from the IRS. However, the commitment wasn’t new: The Swiss bank promised to do just that last year.

All you tax cheats who signed on for a UBS account last year hoping to stash yer remaining cash or illicit TARP-financed bonus award payola in a secret Swiss bank account?

Surprise!

And UBS wasn’t just pulling this stunt in the US of A. Oh no siree. They were also doing it in Canada, dispatching a crack squad of tax cheat helpers from here to there. For years.

Riddle me this, kiddies: Phoreclosure Phil Gramm, erstwhile McCain economic advisor and Republican "deregulation rocks!" guru was running about positing all sorts of nifty ideas throughout the last presidential campaign.

At the same time, Gramm was a board member and lobbyist for UBS, which knew it was under investigation by the DOJ.

In fact, they reached an agreement with the DOJ just last year — during McCain’s campaign — to disclose names of tax cheats. 

Did McCain know?

It’s bad enough that Phoreclosure Phil’s economic theories suck rocks, and that his propensity to dispense favors for all manner of moneyed interests in the form of whatever deregulation they needed to run a scam on the public keeps popping up. (See, e.g., Enron. For starters.)

Just how much did Phil Gramm know about the years of ongoing UBS tax cheat scheme? Because I can’t seem to find anyone who has bothered to ask him outright, even though Gramm was one of the main architects of any number of UBS’ big deals (which have since tanked) the last few years.

Isn’t it time someone asked Gramm publicly what he knew and when? 

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Gears via …_wink_…

Looks like some questions are being raised about Mark Gitenstein’s lobbying ties and the potential conflict of interest it might present in helping select federal judges at the Office of Legal Policy:

The likely nominee to head Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, Mark Gitenstein, worked as a lobbyist for the chamber between 2000 and 2008, helping his firm earn more than $6 million in fees, according to federal lobbying records. The business alliance has pushed the White House and Congress to appoint judges and enact legislation that would make it harder for plaintiffs to sue large corporations and collect large damage awards, raising concerns from some activists.

Gitenstein, a partner at the Mayer Brown law firm in Washington, was a longtime senior aide to Vice President Joe Biden. In recent years, he also has served as counsel to the chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform, which pushed for changes in federal litigation rules and adding business-friendly judges to state courts.

But that’s not the interesting part. It starts getting amusing when the defense mechanisms kick into gear:

If nominated, Gitenstein would require a waiver from the ethics rules. The White House has already acknowledged the need to exempt several high profile positions, including that of William Lynn III, recently a lobbyist for defense contractor Ratheon Corp., who was named to the No. 2 job at the Pentagon….

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