Don’t Let the Government “Cyprus” Your Bank Account

We can help you with this from Ecuador.....

 By Bob Bauman, JD, Offshore and Asset Protection Editor

After the close of business last Friday, government authorities in Cyprus put forth a startling proposal to seize 6.75% of every bank account of less than €100,000 ($130,000) and nearly 10% of all accounts holding €100,000 or more.

The goal of this shocking confiscation plan is to guarantee repayment of a planned $10 billion European Union bailout of the tiny Mediterranean nation.

In 2011, Cyprus received a €2.5 billion loan from Russia to cover its refinancing needs for 2012, but it wasn’t enough. The crisis in Greece and a potential Greek exit from the euro affected the Cyprus economy as its banks were heavily exposed to Greek debt.

This new move to seize bank deposits is a first in the euro zone crisis, and the proposed levy’s scope and sudden impact damaged the euro even further.

Until the banks closed and the ATMs ran out of cash, thousands of Cyprus residents lined up trying to access their money. Cyprus banks remain closed today, with many fearing that subsequent bank runs may spread across Europe.

Think something like this can’t happen here? Think again.

The Battle for Your Money

Will the U.S. government, under Barack Obama, “pull a Cyprus” and order U.S. banks to seize funds from our accounts and send them to the Internal Revenue Service to remedy one of its manufactured sequester-type financial crises?


And under the PATRIOT Act, the government already has the power to confiscate all of your bank account funds without notice if you have what the Feds claim to be a tenuous connection to “terrorism,” as they broadly define it.

The government has the means to confiscate your money. Now all it needs is an excuse.

The Spending Orgy Continues…

You may have heard that President Obama admires the European model of government, with its robust social welfare state of high taxes, central planning and little concern about deficit spending and debt — the very system that has produced the mess in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and, now, Cyprus.

To finance the socialist dreams of his profligate administration, Obama still needs ready cash to keep his special interest pals, Wall Street golfing buddies and trade unions happy.

Yes, the president has the Federal Reserve printing billions to prop up our financial system, but his incessant spending requires more and higher taxes.

Only a Republican majority in the House of Representatives stands in his way – exactly where the U.S. Constitution says all revenue measures must originate.

The debt ceiling limit is already nearly breached. No federal budget has been adopted for the last four years. The president says he has no interest in a balanced budget any time in the next 10 years. The battle in Congress is joined.

Think about the man in the White House. Using his “emergency powers,” might not Obama consider a Cyprus-type withholding plan?

Friends, if there was ever a time to safeguard your finances, this is it. Don’t stand there like those poor hypnotized souls watching the peaceful ocean recede just before they drowned in the floodwaters of the tsunami.

Now is the time to move your pension/retirement plan offshore, to open an offshore bank account, and to create an offshore asset protection trust before it’s too late.

Faithfully yours,

Bob Bauman, JD
Chairman, Freedom Alliance