Roman Polanski's arrest: a Swiss political ploy to ward off U.S. charges against banking giant UBS?

Hollywood is fighting the case against film director Roman Polanski, who was arrested in Switzerland over the weekend. Polanski pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl but fled the U.S. before sentencing -- living outside the U.S. for the last 30 years. "We're calling on every filmmaker we can to help fix this terrible situation," said mogul Harvey Weinstein.

But Washington is watching too.

According to Britain's Guardian, rumors are circulating that Swiss authorities may be using Polanski as a sacrificial lamb to appease their U.S. counterparts in Washington who are investigating a widening tax-evasion scandal involving Swiss banking giant UBS.

"Almost everyone agrees that the 76-year-old director's arrest on arrival at Zurich airport smacks of back-channel deal-making," wrote Edward Helmore in the online news magazine The First Post. "But who's been making the deals and with whom? Was the decision to help the Americans an attempt to ease tensions between the two countries in the wake of an offshore banking scandal?

Ticket has put in a call to the Justice Department and is awaiting a callback.

In the meantime, this is what is fueling the speculation.

A New Jersey businessman, Juergen Homann, last week  became the fifth UBS AG client since April to agree to plead guilty to concealing money from U.S. tax and finance authorities by using offshore accounts, including Swiss bank UBS. The Internal Revenue Service last week extended an amnesty program -- until Oct. 15 -- for Americans who hid money in offshore accounts to come clean. So far, 3,000 have turned themselves in. And in a blow to the pride of Swiss banking secrecy, as part of the investigation,  UBS -- which already agreed to a $780-million fine -- is preparing to hand over 4,450 client names to Justice and the IRS.

Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman Guido Balmer rejected talk that Polanski's arrest was a political move. "There was a valid arrest request and we knew when he was coming," he said Sunday. "That's why he was taken into custody. There is no link with any other issues in question."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo Credit: Roman Polanski at the 2008 Cannes film festival. Photograph: Guillaume Horcajuelo / EPA

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Comments

[joe, london]

No, it doesn't matter! All of this is mere parameter shifting. The facts are the facts. He drugged and raped a child. He was convicted on a lesser charge because she didn't want to face the ordeal of a trial. He fled the country before sentencing on that verdict and has been a fugitive ever since. These are facts.

That he made an Academy Award winning film and is and knows rich and famous and powerful people does not alter these facts in any way. That it happened a long time ago, that there may have been misgivings about the initial prosecution, that he was arrested before receiving an award, that the Swiss owe the Americans a favour, blah blah blah - none of this matters.

The man drugged and raped a child. He MUST pay and to suggest otherwise not only insults victims of rape the world over but the very integrity of the American judicial system, and through it, the American people themselves. He MUST pay. Absolutely. Nothing else is important.

[larry]

Of course the Swiss have arrested Polanski as a way of ingratiating themselves with the US since they are very worried that the UBS scandal will eliminate banking secrecy in Switzerland. So Polanski is a bone thrown to the US to distract the Justice Department.

[ValorieK]

The man raped & sodomized a 13 year old girl, how can this just be forgivin, even if his victim has forgivin him (I'm sure she was paid off). I guess it depends on if you see the criminal justice system as punitive or a way to protect society, If it's punitive, then he should pay the price, if it's to protect society, then I doubt he is much of a threat.

[ChicagoShinebox]

I sincerely doubt the Feds would give up on reclaiming all that tax shelter money, in exchange for this guy. He's a slug. He's not worth a possible billion dollars in tax revenue.

I think it's far more likely the taunt by his lawyers was enough to get the prosecutor's office to move on it.

[James Wilson]

Interesting concept, but I don't believe there is any connection whatsoever.

[Ed]

I can't believe Mr Weinstien veiw, THE MAN DRUGGED AND RAPED A 13 YEAR OLD GIRL!

Am I from another planet?

What if this had been your daughter Mr W?

[myfailsafe]

This pedophile drugged and raped a 13 year old girl when he was 40 years old. It does not matter if the now woman does not want him to face justice. The rape of a 13 year old should not be ignored because someone can pay the victim millions of dollars to get over it. He raped a 13 year old girl, and should face true justice, and not the justice of someone who won an academy award. I don't care what deal was made, and who broke it. This predator raped a 13 year old girl when he was 40. That should be the bottom line. Period

[Rod in SFO]

This entire mess is an unconscionable waste of money that the City of LA, State of CA nor the US can afford.

[cody mccall]

Yeah, maybe it's this UBS thing. Or, is that the acrid odor of vaulting political ambition I smell? Could it be somebody in the L.A. prosecutor's office is involved in electoral politics? And Polanski is a convenient emotionally-charged 'issue'? Or has Inspector Javert been lurking in the bowels of the prosecutor's office for the past 32 years just waiting for his opportunity to pounce on Polanski--in Switzerland?
Q: if he wasn't worth pursuing to the ends of the earth--well, France--32 years ago, why is it so important now? Huh?

[Dale Melton]

You can't just flee the country if you don't like the sentence or the judge. I saw the HBO documentary and I think I understand there are some problems with the judge but he has a debt to pay. If the judge doesn't sign off on the plea arrangement then he has to fight it in court.

[Upaj Os]

We don't need Polanski here. With California's budget crunch and Gov. Schwarzenegger looking for ways to release thousands of non-violent offenders from the prisons to save money, why would we want to take on more baggage? Leaving Polanski in life-long exile from the U.S. and California is as good as a death sentence as far as I'm concerned.

[ProfessorWoland]

Regardless of the Swiss's intentions, it is a good thing that they allowed the extradition of Polanski. A person is not exempt from justice because he or she is a "good filmmaker" - especially not someone that drugged and forcefully raped a thirteen-year-old girl.

[PP Island]

This is really all about what club you are a member of.

Nobody in Santa Monica and County of Los Angeles really cares about an older man sexually assaulting a woman or a young girl against her will.

This belated arrest is just an excuse of County of Los Angeles to show off a holier than thou attitude and it reeks of hypocracy.

If Roman Polanski was American and worked for the County of Los Angeles or for a Santa Monica Educational institution in the photography department the County of Los Angeles and their judges would have gladly obliged in covering up his sexual assault using the California Government code as an excuse to hold a hearing and beat up the sexual assault victim with undocumented white sheriffs in the courtroom.

[PP Island]

Double Standard Arnie.

The California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger has not thought out his statement carefully. Roman Polanksi was not treated like everyone else in Nazi Poland. Roman Polanski has been discriminated against because he has some Jewish blood and would have been murdered by the Nazis as a child had he been caught as his mother was.

Nor was he treated like everyone else in California when his wife and child was murdered by the Manson gang. The landlord even asked Polanski to pay for the carpet stained in his wife and child's blood.

And why was the mother of the sexual assault victim not more careful with her young daughter Samantha– in leaving her young daughter at the home of a man whose wife and child had already been murdered by the Manson gang?

In addition Roman Polanski is being discriminated against now by California and IS NOT BEING TREATED LIKE EVERYONE ELSE because if Roman Polanski had not been a French/Polish film director but instead was American Instructor who worked for California in an Educational Institution in the photography department the California County of Los Angeles Appellate Justices would have gladly obliged in covering up Roman Polanski’s sexual assaults on students by using the California Government Code 910 technicality to end the law suit and assault and batter the victim with undocumented white Sheriffs in the Courtroom AND NOT PAY THE SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIM ANY SETTLEMENT. This arrest after all these years- is all about discrimination, abuse of power and Money. There's a Double Standard in California - Arnie and Cooley.