IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03121218.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Institutionalization of the Fight against White-Collar Crime in Switzerland, 1970-1990

Author

Listed:
  • Thibaud Giddey

    (Uppsala Universitet [Uppsala])

Abstract

During the 1970s and 1980s, economic and financial crime turned into a societal issue in Switzerland. The perpetrators of white-collar crime often enjoyed total impunity: legal proceedings were very time consuming, authorities in charge of judicial investigation were under-resourced. This paper investigates how the political and judicial authorities responded to this challenge. By the end of the 1980s, a strong shift towards a more specialized handling of financial crime by public prosecutors occurred. Specialized departments were set up and judges were trained in commercial matters. This transformation breached with a long tradition of leniency and inefficient judicial handling of economic crime. Based on archival evidence, this paper sheds new light on the drivers of an institutionalization process which affected not only the Swiss financial centre, but also all the global judicial proceedings which relied on it. Professionalizing the response to financial crime also aimed at restoring the corporate reputation of Swiss financial firms, in a context of growing competition among offshore financial centers. Secrecy and subterfuge are the white collar criminal's best friends. The surest invitation to illegal conduct that man can devise is a hidden conduit for transmission of funds safe from the eyes of law enforcement officials. That is exactly what secret foreign bank accounts do. Although such accounts may be used with perfect innocence by some depositors, they are too tempting a lure for the tax evader, the securities swindler, the corrupter of public employees, the fraud and the cheat. The 'little tin box' of the 1930's has been replaced by the Swiss bank account of the 1970's.

Suggested Citation

  • Thibaud Giddey, 2020. "The Institutionalization of the Fight against White-Collar Crime in Switzerland, 1970-1990," Post-Print hal-03121218, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03121218
    DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2020.1856077
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03121218
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-03121218/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00076791.2020.1856077?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olegario, Rowena & McKenna, Christopher, 2013. "Introduction: Corporate Reputation in Historical Perspective," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(4), pages 643-654, January.
    2. Kobrak, Christopher, 2013. "The Concept of Reputation in Business History," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(4), pages 763-786, January.
    3. Hartmut Berghoff & Uwe Spiekermann, 2018. "Shady business: On the history of white-collar crime," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(3), pages 289-304, April.
    4. Schenk, Catherine, 2017. "Rogue Trading at Lloyds Bank International, 1974: Operational Risk in Volatile Markets," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 91(1), pages 105-128, April.
    5. Ruggiero, Vincenzo, 2017. "Dirty Money: On Financial Delinquency," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198783220.
    6. Cassis,Youssef, 2010. "Capitals of Capital," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521144049, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cheng Gao & Tiona Zuzul & Geoffrey Jones & Tarun Khanna, 2017. "Overcoming Institutional Voids: A Reputation-Based View of Long-Run Survival," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(11), pages 2147-2167, November.
    2. Degl’Innocenti, Marta & Matousek, Roman & Sevic, Zeljko & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2017. "Bank efficiency and financial centres: Does geographical location matter?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 188-198.
    3. Imad Moosa & Larry Li & Riley Jiang, 2016. "Determinants of the Status of an International Financial Centre," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(12), pages 2074-2096, December.
    4. Maria Carmela Schisani & Luigi Balletta & Giancarlo Ragozini, 2021. "Crowding out the change: business networks and persisting economic elites in the South of Italy over Unification (1840–1880)," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 15(1), pages 89-131, January.
    5. Kaveh Moghaddam & Thomas Weber & Pouya Seifzadeh & Sara Azarpanah, 2021. "Internal Reputation of the Firm: CEO Retention and Firm Market Performance," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(4), pages 205-221, November.
    6. Nils Herger, 2016. "Interest parity conditions during the classical gold standard (1880 -1914) - Evidence from the investment demand for bills of exchange in Europe," Discussion Papers 1607, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    7. Maria Carmela Schisani & Luigi Balletta & Giancarlo Ragozini, 2021. "Crowding out the change: business networks and persisting economic elites in the South of Italy over Unification (1840–1880)," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 15(1), pages 89-131, January.
    8. Hernandez, Carlos Eduardo & Tovar, Jorge & Caballero/Argáez, Carlos, 2022. "Tunneling when Regulation is Lax: The Colombian Banking Crisis of the 1980s," MPRA Paper 115662, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Dariusz Wójcik & Eric Knight & Vladimír Pažitka, 2018. "What turns cities into international financial centres? Analysis of cross-border investment banking 2000–2014," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 1-33.
    10. Flores Zendejas, Juan, 2020. "Explaining Latin America's persistent defaults: an analysis of the debtor–creditor relations in London, 1822–1914," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(3), pages 319-339, December.
    11. Roland Beck & Antonio Coppola & Angus Lewis & Matteo Maggiori & Martin Schmitz & Jesse Schreger, 2024. "The geography of capital allocation in the euro area," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), External statistics in a fragmented and uncertain world, volume 62, Bank for International Settlements.
    12. Vladimír Pažitka & Michael Urban & Dariusz Wójcik, 2021. "Connectivity and growth: Financial centres in investment banking networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(7), pages 1789-1809, October.
    13. Elena Gerko & Hélène Rey, 2017. "Monetary Policy in the Capitals of Capital," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 721-745.
    14. Nicholas Lord & Karin Van Wingerde & Liz Campbell, 2018. "Organising the Monies of Corporate Financial Crimes via Organisational Structures: Ostensible Legitimacy, Effective Anonymity, and Third-Party Facilitation," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-17, May.
    15. Nils Herger, 2018. "Interest-parity conditions during the era of the classical gold standard (1880–1914)—evidence from the investment demand for bills of exchange in Europe," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 154(1), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Eisenschmidt, Jens & Kedan, Danielle & Schmitz, Martin & Adalid, Ramón & Papsdorf, Patrick, 2017. "The Eurosystem’s asset purchase programme and TARGET balances," Occasional Paper Series 196, European Central Bank.
    17. Niv Horesh, 2015. "Gerschenkron Redux? Analysing New Evidence on Joint-Stock Enterprise in Pre-War Shanghai," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 29(1), pages 25-46, May.
    18. Emel Esen & Secil Tastan & Nihan Degercan, 2021. "The Impact of Perceived Corporate Reputation of Sport Clubs on Social Media Usage: a Study with the Lenses of Social Capital," Postmodern Openings, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 12(3), pages 350-383, August.
    19. David J. Scheaf & Matthew S. Wood, 2022. "Entrepreneurial Fraud: A Multidisciplinary Review and Synthesized Framework," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(3), pages 607-642, May.
    20. Klas Rönnbäck & Oskar Broberg & Stefania Galli, 2022. "A colonial cash cow: the return on investments in British Malaya, 1889–1969," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 16(1), pages 149-173, January.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03121218. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.