Secrecy in Switzerland is a big business, encased in laws that carry stiff penalties for violations like breaking the shroud of anonymity around numbered bank accounts. Sometimes, though, Swiss secrecy gets in the way of enforcement of other countries' laws. In one current case, the aftermath has been both bizarre and tragic; it includes the jailing of a former executive of a giant drug company, the suicide of his wife and a threat to have two high officials of the European Economic Community (Common Market) arrested if they set foot in Switzerland.
Ironically, the drug executive, 47-year-old Stanley Adams, was...