News Brief

Planned sanctions against Swiss banks by U.S. state and city financial officials are “illegal,” the Swiss ambassador to the United States, Alfred Defago, told a Swiss newspaper. His comments came as New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi wrote Switzerland’s point man on Holocaust-restitution issues, Thomas Borer, that Switzerland had “reversed itself” with recent statements that it would not participate in any global settlement of Holocaust-era claims. The letter from Hevesi, who quoted earlier statements by Swiss officials that they would seek justice for Holocaust victims, came after Borer wrote him claiming that Switzerland had never committed itself to participate in a global settlement.