<<Heard rumors of a holocaust settlement that would effect POG positively announced after US mkt close>>
(fair use)
Wednesday July 26 6:12 PM ET
Holocaust Survivors Settlement OK'd
By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge approved a historic $1.25 billion settlement Wednesday between Swiss banks and more than a half-million plaintiffs who alleged the banks hoarded money deposited by Holocaust victims.
The long-anticipated ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Korman brings Holocaust victims and their heirs worldwide a step closer to collecting claims against the banks.
In the ruling, the judge said the words of Holocaust survivor Ernest Lobet best summarized his own feelings about the settlement.
``I have no quarrel with the settlement,'' Korman quoted Lobet as saying. ``I do not say it is fair, because fairness is a relative term. No amount of money can possibly be fair under those circumstances.''
Korman now must sign off on a plan, still in the works, for dividing and distributing the settlement - the final phase of a painstaking global campaign to compensate roughly 600,000 claimants.
Under a distribution plan being drawn up by a court-appointed special master, Judah Gribetz, officials will use bank and other records to determine if claims are valid. A draft of Gribetz's plan is due within 30 days.
Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, hailed Korman's decision as ``a belated victory.''
``After more than a half century, a measure of justice has been achieved for the victims of the greatest crime of the century,'' he said.
Defense attorney Roger Witten said the banks have already put $550 million in escrow in anticipation of starting payments, possibly before the end of this year. ``We're as anxious as anybody to get this money out,'' he said.
At hearings last year, attorneys from both sides told Korman that an overwhelming majority of the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit supported a proposed out-of-court settlement reached in August 1998.
The suit was filed by Holocaust victims who deposited money in Swiss banks for safekeeping as the Nazis gained power in Europe, expecting to retrieve it later.
After the war, the plaintiffs claimed, they ran into a stone wall in trying to claim the assets. In some cases, they lacked detailed account information; some bankers even demanded impossible-to-obtain death certificates of people killed in Nazi concentration camps.
The settlement covers Jews and other Holocaust victims who lost money in Swiss accounts, as well as those whose belongings were plundered by the Nazis and apparently wound up in Switzerland, a wartime depository for gold and other assets.
A three-year independent investigation headed by Paul A. Volcker, the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, found that up to 54,000 accounts may have been opened by Holocaust victims.
A report issued last year by Volcker cleared the banks of systematic destruction of records of victims' accounts, but said there was evidence of ``deceitful actions by some individual banks.''
In May, the two largest Swiss banks - Credit Suisse Group AG and UBS AG (NYSE:UBS - news) - agreed to grant access to databases containing 2.1 million Holocaust-era accounts to help speed payments to victims.
Contacted Wednesday, Lobet - a Glen Cove, N.Y., attorney who spent more than two years as a slave laborer in Auschwitz - said though he was thankful to be part of Korman's ruling, the settlement itself is bittersweet.
``Am I going to be compensated for Auschwitz? Obviously not,'' he said. ``But at least it's an acknowledgment that something is owed to the victims. .... It's the best that could be done under the circumstances. It's time to close the books.''
-
On the Net:
swissbankclaims.com
giussani.com
dailynews.yahoo.com
Wednesday July 26, 7:07 pm Eastern Time
Protect Generali from Holocaust lawsuits--panel
By Joan Gralla
NEW YORK, July 26 (Reuters) - A global panel probing whether Europe's insurers bilked Holocaust survivors is working on a plan to protect Italy's Generali from lawsuits now that the insurer has sealed a $150 million accord with the group, a panel member said on Wednesday.
The memorandum of understanding, which finalises a preliminary agreement reached on June 22, obliges Generali to pay all valid claims from Holocaust survivors and heirs, Elan Steinberg, World Jewish Congress executive director, told Reuters by telephone.
A number of Europe's insurers, including Generali, have been sued in U.S. courts by Holocaust families who charge the firms never honoured prewar policies.
The Italian insurer will give the panel access to its archives. To help potential claimants, more than 21,000 names of the firm's policy holders will be published on the panel's Web site, Steinberg added.
The WJC is a member of the panel, which is called the International Commission on Holocaust-era Insurance Claims and which is led by former U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger.
``I can confirm that discussions are already under way with the U.S. Justice Department on a statement of interest for Generali,'' Steinberg said.
He was referring to a statement that would advise U.S. courts that the executive branch believes it is in the country's interest to dismiss any suits brought by Holocaust families against Generali because there is a separate claims process.
U.S. courts are not required to follow the executive branch's advice, but a statement of interest is seen by legal experts as a way to deal with the hurdle imposed by the constitutional separation of powers.
biz.yahoo.com
&
dailynews.yahoo.com
&
biz.yahoo.com
&
biz.yahoo.com
livingheirs.com
Generali also will give a foundation in Jerusalem, chaired by Dov Levin, an ex-justice of Israel's supreme court, the responsibility of deciding which claims are valid, Steinberg said.
The Italian insurer is Europe's second-largest insurance group when measured by its European market share, which is 5.8 percent, according to Standard & Poor's, the credit agency.
Eagleburger's panel wants to reach similar agreements with three other insurers that belong to it, Steinberg said. They are France's AXA , and Switzerland's Winterthur and Zurich Allied . |
