[colechristensen]

If you do business in the US you're subject to jurisdiction. If you're a foreign bank, to transact with anyone in the US you have to do business in the US. The court orders the bank to fork over somebody's cash, they do because they have to and the alternative is disconnecting themselves from the rest of the financial system. Several Swiss banks got the death penalty because they failed to be quite as isolated and secretive as advertised (i.e. they had agents in the US doing business)

To seize somebody's gold you'd have to go physically get it. To seize their dollars you just go say hi to their bank. Unless you're an "enemy combatant" the US isn't going to go do extraordinary rendition on your assets, so you're pile of foreign gold is safe.

The reach of the American legal system is long, you don't have to do much as a foreign entity to put you under our umbrella.