The activist arm of the Center for American Progress (CAP) on Thursday attacked a Swiss bank partially owned by a major CAP donor for allegedly offering tax avoidance advice to U.S. corporations.
A writer at the ThinkProgress blog detailed a Swiss court filing alleging that Swiss bank Julius Baer "told hundreds of Americans how to evade U.S. taxes on a total $600 million in wealth."
Julius Baer is a publicly traded company. One of its largest shareholders is Bank of America, which is a CAP donor.
It is not known how much Bank of America donated to CAP, since the group will not release that information.
The ThinkProgress article did not disclose that a major Julius Baer shareholder is also a contributor to the blog’s parent organization.
Bank of America is also a former client of the Podesta Group, the lobbying firm founded by John Podesta, CAP’s founder and until recently its chairman. Twelve other companies that have donated to CAP have also inked lobbying deals with the Podesta Group.
Additionally, CAP has received contributions from the Sea Change Foundation, which is funded in large part by a company incorporated in Bermuda with ties to wealthy American hedge fund managers. Bermuda is also a notorious tax haven.