Скачать или смотреть USA: HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS REACH SETTLEMENT WITH SWISS BANKS (2)

(13 Aug 1998) English/Nat

An important step was won in the long fight by Holocaust survivors to regain assets lost during World War Two, as their lawyers and Jewish groups reached a 1.2 billion (b) U-S dollar settlement with Swiss banks.

The money will be paid out over four years and lawyers have yet to determine how the payout will be doled out to the survivors.

Key players celebrated the settlement's announcement in New York, which concluded a long fight by over 31-thousand survivors who filed a class action lawsuit against the banks last year.

With the announcement, targeted Swiss banks like Credit Suisse and U-B-S A-G averted sanctions which had been threatened by several U-S states.

Holocaust survivors and Swiss banks reached a 1.2 billion (b) U-S dollar settlement on Wednesday over the claims to money lost during World War Two.

The settlement finally came after years of legal bickering between Swiss banks and Jewish groups.

U-S Senator Alfonse D'Amato, a New York Republican and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, was a key proponent in pressuring the Swiss to reach an agreement.

He was in New York to celebrate with Holocaust survivors and family members and Christopher Meili, the Swiss bank guard who early last year rescued key Holocaust-era documents from the shredder.

Senator D'Amato said he was pleased that survivors will finally see some of the money they have been seeking.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Now maybe we can take forth a healing process and we can put this behind us so that we can go forward. And these monies will be used for humanitarian purposes and one billion, 250-million dollars is a considerable sum. It doesn't give back all that people lost for so many years, but it certainly is a meaningful step and I hope we can get about the business now of bringing people together."
SUPER CAPTION: Alfonse D'Amato, U-S Senator, (Republican-New York)

The case over Nazi gold grew into a 20 billion (b) U-S dollar class action lawsuit which represented 31-thousand-500 plaintiffs worldwide.

Jewish leaders rejected an offer in June by the Swiss banks in June to pay 600 (m) million U-S dollars to settle the claim.

To put more pressure on Swiss banks, a number of cities and states in the U-S and threatened to impose sanctions on Swiss businesses if they did not agree to an acceptable settlement.

New York City and New York state announced plans to start phasing in sanctions against the banks in September if a settlement was not reached.

A Credit Suisse Bank spokesman said those sanctions played a crucial role in the decision to reach the settlement.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well, clearly the sanctions were one of many factors that led to the overall analysis of this particular situation. So clearly the sanctions were a significant part of the overall process, but there were many issues that we had to deal with. The primary concern we always had was doing the right thing and coming to a satisfactory resolution for the Holocaust survivors themselves. That was and always continues to be our primary motivation as we move this forward."
SUPER CAPTION: Bob O'Brien, Credit Suisse Bank Managing Director

The settlement means a sense closure for 73-year old Holocaust survivor Estelle Sapir.

Her father had an account at a Swiss bank before World War Two, but every time she's tried to get the money, the banks have turned her away.

She said it was the end of a long fight whose conclusion was long overdue.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Estelle Sapir, Holocaust survivor







SOUNDBITE: (English)






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