Chapter 10Lake Lucerne, SwitzerlandThe village of Vitznau sits by the water’s edge of
Lake Lucerne, clinging to a narrow strip of land overshadowed by the
towering heights of Mount Rigi. During the summer, tourists descend on the
village, travelling an hour by boat from the city of Lucerne. You can drive
to Zurich and its international airport in an hour, or to Italy, via the St.
Gotthard Tunnel; in the other direction, an hour’s drive will bring you to
Lichtenstein, another tax haven.
Horst Schendler had been well aware of all these virtues
when he chose Vitznau as his home. Over the years, he’d spent a
considerable amount of time in Lucerne, mostly at the Luzerner PrivatBank AG
located off the Pilatusstrasse, in the heart of the business district. For
his own private affairs,
