A new international legal battle is heating up — and it’s taking aim squarely at Switzerland’s storied banking system. In a bombshell interview with the Abu Dhabi Times, attorney Dr. Gerhard Podovsovnik accused the Swiss government and its biggest banks of sitting on Nazi-era assets that were never returned to Holocaust victims or their families.
According to Podovsovnik, Switzerland has spent eighty years “burying the truth” behind layers of banking secrecy. “The Bergier Report proved the Swiss National Bank and private banks were willing partners of the Nazi regime,” he said. “They traded in stolen gold, refused Jewish refugees at the border, and called it neutrality. That’s not neutrality — that’s moral complicity.”
A Lawsuit Waiting to Happen
Podovsovnik, vice president of AEA Justinian Lawyers, has filed a formal demand to the Swiss Federal Council and to Federal Councillor Suter. His team is pushing for immediate legislation to force every Swiss financial institution to disclose all pre-1948 accounts.
If Switzerland refuses, Podovsovnik says he’ll take the fight to U.S. federal courts. “Switzerland can’t keep hiding behind old banking laws,” he warned. “If they don’t open the books, they’ll end up in court — not as a neutral state, but as a perpetrator.”
The case centers on Rabbi Ephraim Meir, who claims inheritance rights to several accounts that remain dormant inside UBS. Podovsovnik insists the accounts were created during the Nazi era and never returned to the rightful heirs. “Rabbi Meir’s claim represents thousands of Jewish families who were robbed of everything — money, homes, even history,” he said in the Abu Dhabi Times interview.
America’s Courts Could Reopen the Past
Podovsovnik believes the 1998–2000 Global Settlement, which supposedly resolved Holocaust-era banking disputes, was based on “fraud on the court.” He says new evidence shows Swiss institutions deliberately hid assets to avoid restitution. “The settlement wasn’t closure — it was a cover-up,” he said.
If the case lands in U.S. courts, the legal team plans to demand full disclosure, global asset tracing, and potentially the freezing of funds tied to Nazi-era profits. It would be one of the largest financial investigations into World War II-era assets since the 1990s.
And while Switzerland has long prided itself on neutrality, Podovsovnik says that excuse doesn’t work anymore. “You can’t be neutral about genocide,” he said. “Silence isn’t neutrality — it’s participation.”
The full Abu Dhabi Times interview, titled “Switzerland Must Finally Face Its Moral Bankruptcy”, has gone viral across global media.
For a country that built its image on trust and discretion, the accusations strike at the heart of Swiss identity. If even part of Podovsovnik’s claim proves true, the next courtroom showdown may not just be about old money — it’ll be about rewriting history.
