Swiss Put Freeze on Bank Accounts in Arms Scandal
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BERN, Switzerland — The Swiss government, in its first action in the Iran- contra scandal, today ordered a one-month freeze on bank accounts used in moving money from Iran arms sales to the Nicaraguan rebels.
A Justice Ministry spokesman said Washington specifically cited only one account at the Geneva branch of Credit Suisse and the names of three people with access to that account.
He said the bank was ordered to freeze that account, as well as any others that may have been opened by those three people.
Switzerland did not give any names, but U.S. reports have identified the three as former National Security Council staffer Col. Oliver L. North, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Secord and Iranian-born American businessman Albert Hakim.
Pierre Schmid, deputy director of the Swiss Justice Ministry, told a news conference that a detailed American request for the account or accounts to be frozen cited “fraudulent transactions.”
Credit Suisse previously said it voluntarily blocked one account Dec. 5 without waiting for any order from the government in Bern.
The bank said the account was held in the name of a company called “Lake Resources Inc.”
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