Withdrawing money from swiss bank?

Question

in 1962 $900 mil was deposited to a swiss bank legitimately (also verified by the UN that its not laundered money or drug money, etc). The beneficiaries of account wish to withdraw the funds but the swiss bank and govt is refusing, they are willing to give back only 30% of all the funds in the account, which is in the billions today. The beneficiaries of this account are family friends and they have already been approached by many con artists, luckily so far we've been able to avoid their trap, I feel that there is nothing I can do but ask around myself. They've tried hiring attorneys but all they do is hike up the hours and do nothing... not surprisingly. They also mentioned that after a certain amount of years they may even loose all of the funds! Has anyone heard of such Swiss law or banking law? Where can I get some legitimate legal help? Should we try hiring an attorney in Switzerland instead of here?

Answer 1

I'm having a hard time with the premise.

$900M in 1962 would be worth $6.17 Billion in 2007.

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Whoever had the original account, they would be in Forbes back then, and today.

One just doesn't just deposit $900M even in 1962. That kind of money is always wired. There would be records from where the wire originated from.

And how do you know that such funds were deposited in 1962?

Next, how would "con artists" approach you or "beneficiaries?"

How would anyone know that there is allegedly all this money somewhere. Go on the street and watch 1000's of 'visionary con-artists swarm random people who they think have money.' And who would ever disclose details to strangers or post it on the net? Just not likely.

So how do you know about it? If I knew someone with $900M I sure would not be telling people about it.

general banking:

1. Whoever's name is on the account has access to the funds.

2. If the person died, there would have been a will or trust. It is ridicules to conceive that someone with that kind of money would die with no one ever saying, hey you need an estate plan?

3. Ok, playing along with this post. No will no trust. Fine. You said the bank account has named beneficiaries. If the people who's names appear on the account are still alive as you state, then all they have to do is bring in valid ID and a death certificate to the bank.

4. If nothing else works, of course get a Swiss attorney who has expertise in banking and litigation. I'd hire the biggest law firm in the world. If you can convince a top law firm or anyone that someone has legal access to all this money they will work for you on contingency.

Personally, after reading this post, I am not buying that there is any truth here.

Answer 2

Hiring a Swiss attorney doesn't sound like a bad idea. Don't get me wrong, I don't know very much about Switzerland and it's laws, but attorneys there will probably know more about them than ones out of Switzerland.