A decades-old financial mystery has reignited global outrage as new investigations allege that UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, still holds dormant Nazi-era assets. The revelations come after coordinated exposés by European and American media, sparking renewed questions about the moral and legal responsibilities of one of the world’s most powerful financial institutions.
Global Spotlight on Forgotten Holocaust-Era Accounts
Viennese attorney Dr. Gerhard Podovsovnik and Rabbi Ephraim Meir have filed new claims seeking restitution for assets originally deposited at Basler Handelsbank—a bank later absorbed by UBS. Reports from Der Standard’s Eric Frey (read here), Ami Magazine’s Riva Pomerantz (full story) and Peter Hell of BILD (read here) document six main accounts and twelve sub-accounts allegedly tied to Jewish victims and Nazi-era seizures.
The journalists cite internal bank correspondence and postwar memos suggesting the funds were never formally disclosed or returned. Their findings have reopened long-standing debates about Swiss banking secrecy and post-Holocaust justice.
UBS Denies Allegations Amid Mounting Legal Pressure
Dr. Podovsovnik told the Abu Dhabi Times that UBS can no longer dismiss the issue as a historical relic.
“UBS managed these assets for eight decades. Under anti-money-laundering laws, the bank was required to verify ownership years ago. Denial at this stage risks exposing a systemic failure in Swiss finance,” he said.
UBS insists that “no such accounts exist,” claiming internal audits revealed nothing. But Frey and Pomerantz’s reports contradict that position, aligning closely with archival documents filed in Austrian and U.S. courts.
European Investigations Deepen Financial Tensions
The German newspaper BILD recently joined the coverage with its feature Geheimnisvolle Nazi-Konten in der Schweiz: Millionen-Schatz entdeckt? (read article), which cited a U.S. Senate inquiry into hidden Swiss assets linked to wartime activity. That story intensified scrutiny of UBS and the Swiss government’s role in supervising legacy accounts.
Dr. Frey’s Der Standard analysis traced the accounts from the 1930s through the 2000 Kormann settlement, concluding that “unaccounted prewar balances may still lie within UBS’s internal books.” Pomerantz described Rabbi Meir as “the unwilling inheritor of an unfinished chapter of justice.”
Attorneys now prepare lawsuits in Switzerland, the United States, and the European Union seeking an asset-freeze order and full disclosure of UBS’s internal ledgers. Geneva analysts warn that confirmed concealment could create the largest compliance scandal in Swiss banking history.
“We are not fighting ideology,” Podovsovnik said. “We are demanding transparency and restitution. If UBS faces its past honestly, it might finally restore the integrity the global banking world desperately needs.”
