The investor chooses among the 120 trustees, who are sworn to secrecy, who can set up names and address for foundations, and transform them into P.O. Box companies. Upon receipt of a foundation certificate, the group can open bank accounts and pay money into them. To the outside, these straw-man groups are seen as the owners of the fortunes, while the true owners stay anonymous and sheltered from their home countries taxes. Every second employed citizen of Liechtenstein works in the financial sector or for the trusts. They work from early until late to secure their reputation for discretion and as a shelter for secret funds.
Bank secrecy is the doctrine of the state.
Additionally, lawyer-client privilege and trust and tax secrecy laws exist to protect investors. It s all a seemingly perfect shield. Now the BND has succeeded in another coup. After the end of the Cold War, the German federal government assigned new priorities to the secret service money laundering and the drug trade. The dealings of international criminal syndicates were to be targeted.