Thomas Hettich’s Reviews > Der Fall Weil: Wie mein Leben in den Fängen der US-Justiz zum Albtraum wurde > Status Update

In the last few pages we learn about different witnesses during their cross-examination. It is quite wonderful to hear how the self-described innocent Dieter Dunkel, a.k.a. Martin Liechti, becomes increasingly shady as the questions from the defense drill into the interactions between the two men.

Some days into the proceedings and it is already clear that the “evidence” against Raoul Weil is weak and the deal-making of the US authorities highly questionable. The first material witness against Weil discredits himself entirely.

At this point Raoul is now living with friends and preparing for trial. I enjoy the revelations that “Dieter Dunkel” had access to files that are later not disclosed to Raoul and hope to find out more about how this came about (and why the US authorities made the deals they did).

“Short shrift” seems to be correct. On pages 140 to 149 the entire history that would explain the background of the charge against Raoul Weil seems to be neatly tied up. It doesn’t feel much more personal than a slightly expanded Wikipedia entry. As of page 154 we are back to his personal story with very little beyond the immediate moment. Hoping for the background to be fleshed out a bit more…

The last few pages are starting to dig into who did what wrong, who made deals with US authorities. It is rather annoying that the real names are not used - but I need to take a second to remember who is it he means. I worry that the most interesting part of this - that the US authorities are cutting deals with the people who are least likely to be trusted - gets a short shrift.

After many more stories of life in jail, he mentions how the extradition in Italy came about. The original charge of "conspiracy to defraud IRS" against Weil had turned into "tax fraud" in order for Italian justice to support the extradition (they wouldn't have lent their hand to a "conspiracy" charge as it couldn't have been sufficiently substantiated).

So far rather uninteresting account of being brought to jail, then prison. I look forward to details related to the US accusations against UBS.