Swiss Bank Guard, Family Get Permanent Residency in U.S.
WASHINGTON — President Clinton signed legislation granting permanent residency to a former Swiss bank guard harassed at home after rescuing Holocaust-era documents, the White House said Wednesday.
The legislation, which Clinton signed Tuesday, grants sanctuary to Christoph Meili, 29, his wife and two children. Meili and his family are in the United States on 90-day visitors’ visas that expired Tuesday.
Meili discovered in January that Union Bank of Switzerland was shredding documents dating to the years before World War II. He secretly retrieved some of the material and gave it to a Jewish organization.
Jewish groups have criticized Swiss banks for not being forthright in revealing records of Jewish gold and assets that disappeared in Switzerland after the war.
Meili was fired after he turned over the documents, and Swiss prosecutors are investigating him for possible violations of Switzerland’s bank secrecy laws. He has been denied other employment in Switzerland and fled with his family to the United States after receiving numerous death threats.
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