Credit Suisse accused in the U.S. of complicity in tax evasion
Swiss bank Credit Suisse was indicted on Wednesday by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday. of complicity in tax evasion by very high-powered US citizens. purchasing power. The two-year investigation was focused on that entity’s compliance with the plea agreement it signed in 2014 with the U.S. Department of Justice for enabling tax evasion.
The legislative committee reported in a statement on its website that it uncovered significant violations of that pact, including a previously unknown and potentially criminal plot not to report secret offshore accounts, and noted that the total amount of that breach amounts to more than $700 million.. The senators’ inquiries, according to the note, also shed new light on the extent to which Credit Suisse bankers aided and abetted offshore tax evasion by U.S. businessman Dan Horsky, who in 2016 pleaded guilty to one of the largest tax evasion cases in U.S. history.
The committee had also asked Credit Suisse for information on undeclared accounts belonging to Americans with more than $20 million in the bank.and identified 23, although the review has not been completed. For the chairman of that Upper House committee, Democrat Ron Wyden, everything points to “a massive and ongoing conspiracy to help ultra-wealthy U.S. citizens evade taxes and defraud their fellow citizens.”
The legislator recalled that Credit Suisse obtained a discount on the penalty received in 2014 precisely because its executives “swore” to cease the fraudbut the current findings show that it has not kept its promise. The failures include closing a large account belonging to a family with U.S. and Latin American nationals and transferring nearly $100 million in funds to other banks in Switzerland and elsewhere without notifying the Department of Justice.
By acting in this manner, the senators indicated, Credit Suisse facilitated that potentially criminal tax evasion. to unnoticed for almost a decade. Former senior bankers, such as the former head of the private banking division for Latin America, Alexander Siegenthaler, were involved in the management of large undeclared accounts.
The committee called on the Department of Justice to correct what it described as “lax supervision” over the Swiss bank.The bank said it would rigorously review compliance with the 2014 pact and hold it accountable for any violations. Credit Suisse defended itself in a statement Wednesday by claiming that it “does not tolerate tax evasion” and that some of the problems highlighted date back a decade and that it has taken steps since then to rid itself of those who sought to hide assets from tax authorities.
