Financial Discovery & Foreign Bank Secrecy Laws
If an adversary hides assets in a foreign bank located in a tax haven, then that bank will likely rely on foreign bank secrecy laws to resist financial discovery about the adversary. A foreign court located where the foreign bank witness resides could however, apply an exception to bank secrecy law. In said situation, the foreign court might possibly order the foreign bank witness to disclose the adversary's financial information via Letters Rogatory, as suggested by "Foreign Bank Secrecy Laws & An Asset Search".
Foreign bank secrecy laws may also play a significant role when a domestic court exercises in personam jurisdiction over a foreign witness in possession of an adversary's financial information. To determine whether such a foreign witness is subject to domestic disclosure, a domestic court might analyze foreign bank secrecy laws along with the following factors mentioned in Old Ladder Litigation Co. LLC. v. Investcorp Bank B.S.C, et. al. No. 08-CV-00876 (S.D.N.Y. May 29, 2008):
"1. the competing interests of the nations whose laws are in conflict;
2. the hardship of compliance on the party or witness from whom discovery is sought;
3. the importance to the litigation of the information sought and whether there are alternative means to secure the information;
4. the good faith of the party resisting discovery;
5. whether the information originated in the United States; and
6. the specificity of the request." (Id. at 10-11).
Copyright 2008 Fred L. Abrams
