First Term Exam 3AS (Money Laundering )

Wed Nov 28, 2012 9:40 pm

Switzerland’s banks will soon change the way they operate. Swiss banks have for centuries been the place for the rich to deposit money they want to hide. Many wealthy people avoid paying taxes in their own country by opening a Swiss bank account. However, the Swiss government is under a lot of international pressure to change its banking laws because of the global banking crisis. The U.S. in particular says it is now time for Americans to pay tax in the USA. America’s government wants Swiss banks to stop helping people evade tax. Helping foreigners evade tax is not a crime in Switzerland. Swiss banks have made trillions of dollars from protecting wealthy foreigners who should be paying tax on their income to their own government.

Switzerland is the world’s largest tax haven. Swiss president Hans-Rudolf Merz said Swiss banks would co-operate with the international community to fight the tax cheats. However, he added that Swiss banks would help where foreign
governments can prove that bank customers are breaking the law. Many governments say this is not enough. It also means the world’s dictators can continue to steal their country’s riches and hide the money in Swiss banks. US President Obama strongly hopes to solve the problem of tax evasion, which he believes is costing the USA billions of dollars a year
in lost tax revenues. Switzerland is proceeding carefully. It fears it could be blacklisted by world powers.

1) Choose the correct item to complete the following statement.

a. Wealthy people do not ……… taxes in their countries.
a) have b) evade c) pay

2) Say whether the following statements are true or false according to the text.
a. People have hidden their money in Swiss banks for hundreds of years.
b. Helping foreign tax evaders is forbidden under Swiss laws.
c. Switzerland is the world centre for the rich to hide their money.

3.Answer the following questions according to the text.

a.Why is Switzerland forced to change its banking system?
b.Does Switzerland benefit from protecting rich foreigners who evade tax in their own countries ?
c.What is the US president’s wish?

4) What or who do the undelined words in the text refer to?
a) its§1 b)their §2

1) Find in the text words or phrases that are close in meaning to: insufficient (§2 ) clients (§2)

1) a.The Swiss president said that Swiss banks would co-operate with the international community to fight the tax cheats.
b. The Swiss president said, “.................”

2) a.Criminals are hiding huge amounts of money in foreign banks.
b.Huge amounts of money……………………………..

4) Rewrite the sentences below using the prompts given in brackets.

a – Our government should find a solution to reduce the scale of corruption. (it’s high time)
b - Businessmen and firms don’t give their employees their rights . ( I wish)

5)Classify the following words in the table below according to the pronunciation of their final “ed”.
promised - helped - changed - ended -

PART TWO : WRITTEN EXPRESSION(Choose ONE of the following topics)

Topic one:

Write an article about money laundering and its impact on economy.
You may use the following notes: Money laundering /hiding the illegal /origin /money/ disguise/ from tax inspection/criminals/deposit/foreign banks/buy / sell properties/money becomes legal.

Effects:
to damage /financial sector/increase of crime /to divert resources/ to
encourage corruption/crime/to reduce productivity…etc)

Topic2: In your opinion what is the best solution to root out all malpractices in our institutions? Give suggestions.