Baumann & Cie, Banquiers

Baumann & Cie, Banquiers, headquartered in Basel, is a Swiss private bank specializing in wealth management and investment advisory.[1]

Baumann & Cie, Banquiers
IndustryPrivate banking
Financial services
Founded1920 (1920)
HeadquartersSt. Jakobs-Strasse 46,
4002 Basel
,
Switzerland
Number of locations
3
Key people
Partners:
Matthias C.E. Preiswerk
Daniel O.A. Rüedi
ServicesWealth Management, Investment Advisory
Number of employees
About 60
WebsiteBaumann & Cie, Banquiers

Organization

Baumann & Cie, Banquiers is organized as a limited partnership, with three managing partners having personal, unlimited liability and one limited partner.

While the focus lays on wealth management for private and institutional clients, the bank also advises in the areas of inheritance, retirement as well as succession planning, tax and accounting. Furthermore, Baumann & Cie is actively involved in startups and holds significant participations in several companies. As such, Baumann & Cie holds a majority of the shares of Basel-based Trafina Privatbank.[2]

Baumann & Cie, Banquiers employs roughly 60 people at offices in Basel, Zurich and Olten. The amount of assets under management has not officially been announced, nor is it publicly known. The realized profit in the year 2017 amounted to 17.5 million Swiss Francs with an equity capital of 124 million Swiss Francs. Over the past years, the bank has managed to generate an annual profit of more than 10 million Swiss Francs.[2]

History

The company was founded in Basel in the year 1920 as a private bank under the name of Ed. Greutert & Cie.[3] In 1940, the bank was renamed Sturzenegger & Cie.

According to a lawsuit SOCIETE INTERNATIONALE, ETC. v. McGranery, 111 F. Supp. 435 (D.D.C. 1953) filed in the District Court, District of Columbia on February 19, 1953, E. Greutert & Cie and H. Sturzenegger & Cie were used to conceal the ownership of companies by I. G. Farben during the Nazi years. [4][5]

Ed. Greutert & Cie. (and its successor firm, H. Sturzenegger & Cie.), a Swiss banking partnership, and others unknown with the ultimate purpose and objective " to conceal, camouflage, and cloak the ownership, control, and domination by I. G. Farben of properties and interests in many countries of the world, including the United States, other than Germany."[6]

The firm collaborated with Nazi Germany and was closely allied with I.G. Farben.[7][8][9] acting as "general trustee and banker" for I.G. Farben's foreign holdings.[10][11]

H. Sturzenegger changed its name to Baumann & Cie, Banquiers in 1984. In 2009, the Zurich branch opened, followed by the expansion to Olten in 2016.[12]

In 2015, the bank was fined 7.7 million dollars by the United States Justice Department for assisting American clients to evade taxes.[13] In 2016 the bank reported a profit of 13.3 million Swiss Francs, a drop of about 15% from the previous year.[14][15]

References
  1. "Info". www.six-interbank-clearing.com. Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  2. "Basler Privatbank öffnet sich: Bank Baumann legt Zahlen vor | NZZ". Nzz.ch. 2016-01-19. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  3. "Congressional Record, Volume 142 Issue 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)". www.govinfo.gov. Archived from the original on 2021-03-30. Retrieved 2021-03-30. Hans Sturzenegger: Described as ``A Swiss and relative of Greutert, became Managing Director of the Swiss Bank, Ed. Greutert & Cie. * * * In 1942, Sturzenegger was listed as the unlimited partner of the bank and Industrie Bank A.G. of Zurich was listed as the limited partner.
  4. "SOCIETE INTERNATIONALE, ETC. v. McGranery, 111 F. Supp. 435 – CourtListener.com". CourtListener. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  5. "Morals and Money: Ideology and Pragmatism in the Kennedy Administration'sSettlement of the Interhandel-General Aniline &Film Case 1962-1965" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-03-31. The Sturzenegger Complex: The United States Justice Department, (responsible for the case after the APC was wound up in 1946), soon became convinced that proof of the conspiracy must exist in Interhandel‟s records. The key lay in what Civil Division lawyers termed the Greutert/Sturzenegger complex. This was IG Farben‟s private Swiss bank, which controlled Interhandel‟s shareholding.56 However, these records were protected by Swiss bank secrecy laws. Much of the legal wrangling over the next eighteen years centred on Hans Sturzenegger (owner of the largest block of shares) and Interhandel‟s inability to provide American courts with the documents they demanded due to bank secrecy.
  6. "SOCIETE INTERNATIONALE, ETC. v. McGranery, 111 F. Supp. 435 – CourtListener.com". CourtListener. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  7. States, United; Affairs, United States Congress Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban (1997). Swiss Banks and Attempts to Recover Assets Belonging to the Victims of the Holocaust: Hearing Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Fifth Congress, First Session on the Inquiry Into the Assets of Holocaust Victims Deposited in Swiss Banks and the Issues Surrounding the Recovery and Restoration of Gold and Other Assets Looted by Nazi Germany During World War II, and the Acts of Restitution which Must Follow, Thursday, May 15, 1997. U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-16-055749-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. "Civilian Agency Records RG 131". National Archives. 2016-08-15. Archived from the original on 2006-01-04. Retrieved 2021-03-30. The United States charged that from the time of the plaintiff's incorporation in the 1920s to the surrender of Germany in 1945 that Interhandel had participated in a conspiracy or common plan with the private Swiss banking house of Hans Sturzenegger & Cie. (prior to 1940 known as Eduard Greutert & Cie.), I.G. Farben, and others to cloak the ownership, control, and domination by I.G. Farben of properties in the United States and in many other countries.
  9. "Preliminary Report: Concealment of Ownership of Some I. G. Farben Selling Companies / U. S. Group C. C. / Finance Division". lawcollections.library.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  10. Affairs, United States Congress Senate Committee on Military (1945). Elimination of German Resources for War: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Military Affairs. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  11. "Preliminary Report: Concealment of Ownership of Some I. G. Farben Selling Companies / U. S. Group C. C. / Finance Division". lawcollections.library.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
  12. "Privatbank Baumann geht auf Expansionskurs". Finews.ch. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  13. "Swiss banks fined for helping U.S. citizens evade taxes - Business - CBC News". Cbc.ca. 2015-12-15. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  14. "Bank Baumann 2016 Profit Drops". Finews.com. 2017-01-23. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  15. Stefan Schuppli (2017-01-23). "Unsicherheit schmälert den Gewinn der Baumann & Cie Banquiers - Basel Stadt - Basel - bz Basel". Bzbasel.ch. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
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