John McCain and Carl Levin of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations yesterday urged the US Department of Justice for a “change in the current policy” regarding the extradition from Switzerland a Swiss national charged with US tax evasion.

John McCain and Carl Levin of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations yesterday urged the US Department of Justice for a “change in the current policy” regarding the extradition from Switzerland a Swiss national charged with US tax evasion.

McCain, ranking minority member, and Levin, chairman, highlighted that, during the February 26 hearing held by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the DOJ testified that it has charged 35 bankers and 25 financial advisors with misconduct related to facilitating US tax evasion.

“Of those, six have been convicted or pled guilty, and the majority of the rest apparently live openly in Switzerland, having avoided trial on their alleged crimes for years. Yet you also testified that DOJ has not asked Switzerland to extradite any of those defendants, because DOJ believes ‘the Swiss will not extradite its citizens,’” McCain and Levin said in the letter.

They added: “The extradition treaty between the US and Switzerland, however, does not bar the extradition of Swiss nationals who assisted US nationals in the commission of criminal tax evasion, and it is time to test the Swiss government’s professed willingness to cooperate with international tax enforcement efforts and put an end to its nationals participating in criminal tax offenses.”

McCain and Levin acknowledged that Article 3 of the US-Swiss treaty offers “some discretion” to the Swiss government to deny US extradition requests, but said “that discretion is limited.”

“The treaty states that it can ‘not be used to shield from extradition underlying criminal conduct, such as fraud ... or falsification of public documents.’ At least some of the charges in the indictments tiled against Swiss bankers and intermediaries appear to meet that standard.”

After making references to other related articles in the treaty, McCain and Levin urged the DOJ “to at least attempt to use the authorities laid out in that treaty.”

They said: “Even if a request is unsuccessful, it will inform both Switzerland and its citizens that the US is ready to make full use of available legal tools to stop facilitation of US tax evasion and hold alleged wrongdoers accountable.”

Last summer, the US and Swiss governments signed a bilateral treaty, under which already dozens of Swiss banks are said to have signed up in a bid to draw a line under tax evasion wrangles between the nations. Meanwhile, an example of US efforts to push extraditions of individuals from countries on such issues is that of Raoul Weil, ex-head of wealth management at UBS, who was arrested last year in Italy and extradited to the US in December.