“We are left with little hope for a settlement before July 1,” said Elan Steinberg, executive director of the WJC, referring to a date set by U.S. public finance officers to review the negotiations and possibly impose sanctions on Swiss banks.
“The negotiations by the banks are a sham,” a source familiar with the talks said, adding that no further meetings were scheduled.
The secret talks, brokered during the last three months by Stuart Eizenstat, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic affairs, soured recently amid detailed public disclosures about the negotiations.
The WJC last week slammed the banks — Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Bank Corp. and Credit Suisse — for going public with their $600 million offer despite confidentiality agreements signed by both sides. The package includes about $70 million the banks have already paid into a Swiss fund set up last year to aid Holocaust survivors.
The banks said they would reject “unfounded and excessive” demands and accused Jewish negotiators of hurting the process by disclosing previous details.
With no amicable resolution in sight, the next phase in prodding the banks to return Holocaust victims’ assets is likely to involve punitive measures taken by elected officials.
The July 1 meeting of state and local finance officers, led by New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, could result in sanctions against the banks — a move the WJC said it won’t oppose.
The finance officers agreed to a moratorium on sanctions in March, pending the outcome of the talks. The Clinton administration opposes sanctions.
At the same time, Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) said the Senate Banking Committee that he chairs plans to reopen a 50-year-old accord signed with Switzerland on the return of Nazi-looted gold. Switzerland agreed to return $58 million to the Allies in the 1946 Washington Accord despite records that showed Switzerland accepted about five times that amount in looted gold.
And in New York, a federal judge is still considering whether to hear a class-action lawsuit brought against the banks by Holocaust survivors.