A Night for Swiss Pride, Minus Tax Talk

Absinthe, chocolate and raclette cheese are helping Switzerland to banish its private-banking blues.

At the Swiss Embassy on Wednesday night in Washington, a moonlit soiree featuring Davidoff cigars and a humanoid robot aimed to lift the spirits of officials and dignitaries, barely three weeks after a sobering settlement with the Justice Department over offshore tax evasion services sold to wealthy Americans through Swiss private banks.

While the sponsors of the invitation-only party included Credit Suisse, the large Swiss bank still under criminal investigation for its offshore banking services, few words were spoken about the settlement â€" or its blow to the Swiss psyche.

Instead, the pinstripe-suited ambassador, Manuel Sager, toasted two Swiss pilots who made headlines last May with record-long flights in a Swiss-made, solar-powered airplane, the Solar Impulse.

“This was not just an idea that was conceived in Switzerland â€" it’s also a lot of technology,” Mr. Sager told the crowd, standing beside a large Swiss cowbell under an outdoor tent lit with red and white lights, the country’s traditional colors.

When not sipping Kübler absinthe, Holzfass beer in flip-top bottles or 2012 vintage Apologia du Valais aoc Grand Metal red wine, more than 1,300 guests feasted on smoked steelhead trout, veal ragout, green beans with boiled eggs and vanilla ice cream drenched in espresso. Late-night partygoers ambled under a full moon through the embassy’s sprawling grounds, crowding around the swimming pool to listen to Eliane Amherd, a Swiss pop-jazz singer. Nobody fell in.

Other guests, including Swiss majors-general and commanders in full military dress, puffed on Davidoff cigars and feasted at stations serving a Swiss specialty of boiled potatoes, gherkin pickles, pearl onions and pungent melted raclette cheese.

Some guests took turns competing to see who could turn a hand-crank wheel on a mechanical replica of the Cabrio cable car, a high-tech open-top gondola overlooking Mount Stanserhorn near Lucerne. Others observed “Roboy,” a state-of-the art robot developed at the University of Zurich’s artifical intelligence laboratory.

But those specialties and inventions pale in comparison to Switzerland’s reputation for banking secrecy and client confidentiality. It has been home to an estimated $2 trillion in cross-border assets, more than any other country. But crackdowns by American and European authorities on global tax evasion are forcing the European country to change tack.

Under the settlement with the United States authorities last month, Swiss banks will pay up to billions of dollars in fines and disclose to the Internal Revenue Service information about tax-evading American clients. The settlement does not cover 14 Swiss and Swiss-style banks, including Credit Suisse and Julius Baer, that are still under criminal investigation.

Asked about the settlement, Joseph Renggli, the head of economic and financial affairs at the Swiss Embassy in Washington, called it “a legacy issue that had to be resolved.”

Mr. Sager’s American-born wife, Christine, jokingly cautioned guests to “watch out” because Bertrand Piccard, one of the two Solar Impulse pilots, was also a trained hypnotist. “It really does work,” said Mr. Piccard, dressed in skinny black pants and a black pilot-style shirt with patches.

“Maybe,” one guest whispered drily to a reporter, “he can hypnotize Swiss bankers.”