> This isn't about local Swiss law. The clients broke U.S. law.
He was a banker in Geneva. He broke Swiss law to disclose to the U.S. government.
(Now the discussion becomes if it's okay to break Swiss law to protect American law, which I don't have a position on... hence, "this doesn't get into right/wrong, but is worth thinking about")
He turned the info over to the US govt. From my reading of this, either he didn't tell them everything he knew, or the US thought he was withholding info, or he's in prison because everything he was doing in Switzerland was considered withholding info in the first place. I didn't quite get that, but I think it was one of those areas that landed him in prison.
When those laws exist within a single social and legal system, it's usually not too hard to decide which is the "higher" law. It gets tricky when the laws of one society come in to conflict with those of another. Within the US, tax evasion is likely considered more important than confidentiality. In Switzerland, the relative importance of those laws may be rather different.
He was a banker in Geneva. He broke Swiss law to disclose to the U.S. government.
(Now the discussion becomes if it's okay to break Swiss law to protect American law, which I don't have a position on... hence, "this doesn't get into right/wrong, but is worth thinking about")