2001 List of Swiss Bank Accounts from the ICEP Investigation

2001 List of Swiss Bank Accounts from the ICEP Investigation
5-February-2001

Introduction to the List of Accounts The 2001 List of Swiss Bank Accounts from the ICEP Investigation that follows (the “2001 List”), presents the names of Account Owners, Power of Attorney Holders, and other persons taken from approximately 20,825 bank accounts designated during the Independent Committee of Eminent Persons ("ICEP") investigation of Swiss banks as "probably" related to Victims of Nazi persecution. The purpose of the publication of the names in the 2001 List is to allow eligible claimants under the Settlement Agreement of the Holocaust Victims Assets Litigation in the United States to identify the names of Account Owners of deposits in Swiss banks to whose assets they may be entitled. Claim forms, claims procedures, and other relevant information are available on the web sites of the Swiss Bankers Association (www.dormantaccounts.ch), the Claims Resolution Tribunal (www.crt-ii.org), the Special Masters for Claims Resolution Process for Deposited Assets (www.specialmasters.org) and the Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (www.swissbankclaims.com). The listing of the names does not necessarily mean that the listed owners of accounts in Swiss banks were Nazi Victims. Nor does it necessarily mean these owners did not have deposited funds returned to them or that their accounts were not treated appropriately by the banks where the deposits were made. After more than 50 years, identification of Account Owners and their relationship to Victims of Nazi persecution cannot be precise. A name is on the List because the members of ICEP, both Swiss and non-Swiss, concluded that the evidence in bank records and in surrounding circumstances provided a sufficient probability that the Account Owner was a Victim of Nazi persecution so as to warrant the consideration of claims to these accounts in an independent, objective and expeditious claims resolution process. The List has been carefully reviewed to remove names of Account Owners who could not have been Nazi Victims. Nevertheless, because so many names are involved, and because of the imprecision caused by the passage of so much time since the Holocaust, the List may still include some names that are not those of Nazi Victims despite the very careful screening of the List. This risk is, however, clearly outweighed by the importance of providing an opportunity for those who are entitled as original Account Owners or the heirs of those owners to reclaim what is rightfully theirs from the up to $800 million that has been set aside for this purpose from the $1.25 billion Settlement Fund. Contents of the List

• Number of Account Owners: The 20,825 accounts on the List were owned by 18,340 people and by 162 companies. Where there was information to determine that multiple accounts belonged to the same person (as opposed to another individual who simply shared the same name and city), the name is listed only a single time. Where there was inadequate information to determine whether two identically named Account Owners were, in fact, the same person, the name is listed multiple times. Please note that a claimant need only make one claim for an Account Owner whose assets are being claimed, regardless of the number of times or variations of the name published.
  
  Open or Closed Accounts: Where any of the accounts held by an Account Owner is open or suspended, the Account Owner name is marked with an (A) to its left; claimants to Holocaust Victim accounts may make a claim to an account regardless of whether the account is open, suspended or closed.
  
  City and Country: Each Account Owner name is followed by the city and country of the Account Owner. After the city and country, the number of accounts is shown in brackets.
  
  Use of Female Titles: For names with female titles in the bank records (e.g., Frau, Fraulein, Madame, Mademoiselle, Mrs.), a title is printed with the name on the List (titles of Fraulein, Madame and Mademoiselle have been abbreviated to Frl., Mme., and Mlle., respectively). This is necessary because some of the bank records did not provide the first names of women. Male titles have not been published.
  
  Account Owners Domiciled in Non-Axis-Occupied Countries: Some names on the List are for people who resided in countries that were not occupied by Nazis. The names of such persons are listed when the Account Owner’s name matched to a name on a List of Nazi Victims. This also occurs in the cases of joint Account Owners; if one Account Owner’s name matched to a Victim, all fellow Account Owners are listed, regardless of their domicile.
  
  Previously Published Names: The List contains some names of Account Owners published by the SBA in 1997. This is because additional accounts have been found for such Account Owners.
  
  
• Numbered Accounts: The very few numbered accounts for which Account Owner names were not identified in the ICEP investigation are not included in the lists, even if the accounts otherwise qualified for publication. The accounts are excluded because of the lack of Account Owner information. Claims may nevertheless be made for such accounts by filing a claim form with appropriate identifying information.
  

Organization of the List

The publication List is organized in three Sections: first, individual Account Owners, second, companies or trusts, and third, Power of Attorney Holders:

• In the first Section, for accounts held by one or more people, the Account Owners are listed alphabetically by the last name of each Account Owner,
  
  In the second Section, for accounts held by companies or trusts, the Account Owners are listed alphabetically by company or trust name.
  
  
• In the third Section, for those accounts where individuals held Powers of Attorney on the accounts listed in Sections 1 and 2, those Power of Attorney Holders are listed alphabetically.

Sections 1 and 2 present names from all 20,825 of the accounts. Section 3 presents a listing of names from 3,494 accounts where Power of Attorney relationships exist. Power of Attorney relationships are presented to assist the potential claimants in identifying relevant Account Owners.

The List was formatted for the purpose of assisting readers in finding the names of related persons by using two types of cross-references:

• In instances where more than one variation of a person’s name exists in the bank records, each of the variations are alphabetized separately in the List. For example, an Account Owner named “Jones,” with bank records indicating a maiden name of “Smith,” will appear twice in the List - sorted alphabetically under “J” and “S,” respectively. Each entry will include a cross reference to the other, with the designation of “also known as” or “AKA” (“Jones AKA Smith” and “Smith AKA Jones”)
  
  
• In the Account Owner lists (Sections 1 and 2), the Power of Attorney Holder names are indented beneath the related Account Owner’s name. In the Power of Attorney Holder list (Section 3), it is the Account Owner name that is indented underneath that of the Power of Attorney Holder.
  

In every instance a Power of Attorney Holder name is presented, it is italicized.

Making Claims

As described above, the 2001 List has been constructed to assist potential claimants in finding an Account Owner or owners for which he or she wishes to make a claim or claims; thus, many names are presented multiple times to account for name variations and Power of Attorney relationships. Regardless of how many times a name appears in the List, the claimant should only file one claim for a person or company whose assets are being claimed.