The two sides in the landmark $1.25 billion Holocaust cash settlement are close to handing a Brooklyn federal judge the final details of how the deal will work, a lawyer in the case said yesterday.
In “breakthrough” talks that may end months of delays in finalizing the settlement, two of the largest Swiss banks have agreed to create a database of Nazi-era accounts that lawyers for Holocaust survivors can look through, the lawyer said.
Burt Neuborne, who represents the survivors, said the details were worked out with the banks, Credit Suisse Group and UBS AG, in negotiations before Chief Judge Edward Korman late Thursday.
The agreement would mean lawyers trying to resolve the survivors’ claims would be able to look through the 2.1 million accounts set up with the banks between 1933 and 1945. The banks had resisted setting up a database for the accounts until last week.
Roger Witten, a lawyer for the banks, couldn’t be reached for comment.
The unprecedented $1.25 billion settlement was reached in August 1998, after Holocaust victims filed a class-action suit against several Swiss banks, charging the institutions seized the accounts and insurance policies of Nazi victims after the war ended.
Neuborne said several of the smaller banks involved in the settlement haven’t yet agreed to open up their records, which total another 2 million accounts.
He said he’ll fight to get those banks to comply with the agreement, but added he wants to press ahead with the larger banks to start settling claims.
“We don’t want to allow the recalcitrance of a few banks to jeopardize the distribution of proceeds to elderly people who need it quite badly,” he said. “In terms of substance, the parties agree. Now the task is to reduce it to written form.”
Neuborne said the parties hope to give Korman a formal document next week. The judge will have to give final approval to the deal before the process of trying to settle individual claims begins.