Swiss Stock Exchange Rating Agency Removes Volkswagen from its Stock Option List

Kreuzlingen, December 29th 2003

The internationally active investment firm Helvetica Invest AG, which is located in Switzerland, removed Volkswagen from its stock option list, once it became known that Volkswagen had actively participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

On December the 19th 2003, The Epoch Times reported Volkswagen's illegal treatment of job seekers in China. According to the article, university graduates in China were not considered for a job if they were unwilling to sign a guarantee statement included a promise not to practise or support Falun Gong.

The management of Helvetica Invest AG asked its researchers to remove Volkswagen from the Top Pick list. Volkswagen will not be included in the stock option list until it desists from participation in the persecution. Helvetica Invest AGs does not include a customer in its stock purchase options that participates in the persecution of innocent people.

Furthermore, the management decreed that if any other company is found to be a participant in the persecution, it will no longer be offered among its stock options. Helvetica Invest AG wished to increase awareness of the words used after the Holocaust - "never again" - that were frequently expressed in the West after the second World War. A massacre like the one committed against the Jewish people is never to be repeated again. However, China is well on its way to a massacre with its persecution of Falun Gong. No one can support this. International companies should not forget the recent Holocaust lawsuits.

Translated from German at http://de.clearharmony.net/articles/200312/14004.html