Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was convicted last week by a Swiss court for money
laundering. The penalty is a trifling $50,000 fine and a six-month suspended sentence. Jailed ImClone
founder Sam Waksal must wish he had evaded his taxes in Switzerland rather than the US.
The slap on the wrist sentence also requires her to send $12 million and a $180,000 necklace back to the
government of Pakistan. She is appealing the sentence, and her supporters claim that the prosecution
was political.
Naturally, it was political -- that doesn't make her innocent. She used to be Prime Minister, and she now lives in exile under threat of arrest
if she returns to her homeland. Her husband is in jail for corruption and was just indicted for murder of a
chairman of a state-owned industry. There is rather a lot of evidence that she ran a dirty government, and
she's getting her come-uppance. Both times she was Prime Minister, she was dismissed for corruption.
Her defenders say that if she had been a common Pakistani, she would never have faced prosecution for
what she did. One would point out that common Pakistanis don't live in Switzerland with lots of money,
earned legally or not. Such people don't have the chance to face money-laundering charges since they
are a little too busy trying to get enough to eat.
Of course, there is no mention in any of the press reports on the penalties facing the Swiss bankers who
helped her accomplish all of this.