Swiss banks not paying out promised Holocaust compensation: lawyer
NEW YORK, Oct 8 (AFP) - The US lawyer appointed to supervise the compensation of Holocaust victims by Swiss banks has warned that many of those named in a landmark settlement five years ago may never get paid.
Judah Gribetz, who was appointed by a US federal judge to oversee the compensation process, said in a report that Swiss banks had cited bank secrecy laws in restricting information about Nazi-era accounts.
"Lack of full access to existing documentation and the unavailability of other data has interfered with the claims process," Wednesday's New York Times quoted the report as saying.
Gribetz's report was filed with the chief judge of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn where the original suit had been filed.
Five years ago, Swiss banks, led by UBS and Credit Suisse, agreed to pay 1.25 billion dollars to settle thousands of claims from Holocaust victims or relatives.
The class action suit had arisen from an investigation that found some Swiss banks had not returned deposits which people fleeing Nazi persecution had given to them for safe keeping.
Of the 800 million dollars earmarked for bank depositors and their heirs, Gribetz said only 131.5 million dollars had been received.
"The claims process has moved far more slowly than any of the parties concerned" would have liked, he said in his report.
"It is particularly frustrating to contemplate the possibility that not all victims bank records are available, and not all victim accounts will be returned to their owners," he added.